Jack's Jumpchain Journal: Pocket Monster Dimension
by FavChanger
Summary: An ethereal being in a white three-piece-suit makes an offer, an offer too good to refuse. Jack leaves his world for one of his childhood fantasies but is the world of Pokémon too much for him? This world is an amalgamation of the Anime and Game versions of Sinnoh with a bit of real-life sprinkled in. A long-form Jumpchain Story. -ON INDEFINITE HIATUS-
1. Entry 1 - The Man in White

21/05/2018 - 02:30 PM

I was in my accounting class at the time, focusing on the Cash Flow exercises we had to do. The stream of music coming from my headphones was interrupted by someone calling me.

"Hey there."

Startled, I looked up to see a stranger standing in front of me. I wasn't able to tell what gender they were; their facial features were sharp and elegant which were framed in long fair white hair. Their eyes were a piercing golden colour and they wore a pure white three-piece suit. This figure had a sort of ghostly, elven beauty to them.

"Nice to meet you." The figure said smiling politely, "My name isn't important, but I have a business proposal to offer." After focusing on the figure's baritone voice, I decided that the person was probably male.

"Uh…" I glanced away from the figure for a moment and… _it's gone._ The classroom, the tables, my peers, my teacher, the table in front of me, they all disappeared. "Uh, Um… the f…? What's going on?" What was left in its wake was a sea of the night sky; only much more vivid than any night sky I've seen. More than just the sparse glitter of stars, there were spirals of galactic entities. It looked like an artistic interpretation of outer space. "Where the hell is everyone?!"

"Oh, have I alarmed you? I do apologise. Rest assured nothing has happened to you or your friends in your home dimension."

"Uh…" I was speechless, yet a million thoughts were racing through my head, each fighting to be said.

 _Home dimension? Is this guy some sci-fi fantasy nutcase? Am I dreaming? Wait no, it's not a dream because of the fact that I'm questioning it. If this isn't a dream am I in danger? There's nowhere to run, should I fight? No, this guy is probably too powerful, I mean, he made all this happen. How did he even do that? Is he some kind of deity? Deity…?_

A single, terrifying thought won out over all the others and it made my stomach drop. I asked, "Am I… d-dead?"

"Oh no, no, no." The elven man exclaimed slightly flustered. "This isn't the afterlife. This is a pocket dimension that exists parallel to your universe. Your universe is currently frozen in time and your consciousness is here. Your real body is completely intact."

Far more quickly than before, I responded, "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Oh… Ah… Oh! I can put you back in your dimension for a couple seconds and I'll bring you back, that okay with you?"

"Uh… sure." _Can't hurt I gue-_

* * *

Then as if it was a smash cut in a movie, I was back at my desk. My teacher to the left of me, and a friend to my right. It was only after I started hearing it again that I realised that my music had also stopped when I went to that "pocket dimension." It was Space Oddity by David Bowie, which seemed a bit too coincidental for comfort. " _There's something wrong. Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you hear me -?"_

* * *

Then I was back in front of the white man. _Nope, I can't hear you ground control._ Weirdly, my headphones were still in my ears, but they weren't connected to my iPad. They weren't connected to anything.

As I put my headphones and the pencil I was holding into my right pocket, the man asked, "Do you trust me now?"

 _Well, not really… but he's far more powerful than me. Maybe I should just go along with it for now?_ "You… mentioned a proposal of some sorts, could you… elaborate?"

"Ah good, you've calmed down." His eyes almost literally began to light up. "So, I have this hobby of watching people going on adventures. Unfortunately, with the way the earth is completely mapped out and the lack of space program funding, the last great adventure I saw was James Cameron's submarine jaunt. Thus, I am beset by an utter lack of good material."

 _Out of material? Wait, is he insinuating I go on some epic quest somewhere?! Hell no!_ "Okay, I have two questions… Why don't you just watch, read or play something like - I don't know - One Piece? I hear that's a good adventure manga slash anime."

The man in white let out an over exaggerated sigh. "No, it has to actually happen in a four-dimensional space. Not - I'm not having this conversation again. Human fiction is just not good enough." In a change of mood so quick it nearly gave me whiplash, he then politely asked, "What's your other question?"

"Oh, uh…" _Clearly being a deity must mean not being interested in what humans find engaging._ "Why me and not someone else? I mean I'm still in high school." I pointed at the logo on my uniform which was on the left side of my chest. My navy-blue school sweater had the sky-blue monochromatic logo of a tree.

"The reason I have approached you is simple: You wish your life could be different. Perfectly normal, by the way. Escape fantasies are a natural part of life these days. However, what I am offering you is an actual chance of escape. Or, at the very least a break." His eyes were lighting up again.

 _Do I want an escape?_ I thought to myself. _I'm perfectly content with how my life is going so far. I'm happy, I have a loving family, I'm enjoying school, in fact, Year Twelve has been the best year of school so far for me. I mean, I've definitely daydreamed about a lot of different situations I'd like to see myself in, and some of those would be really cool. No, I don't want to leave home, I love my life and leaving would just be too homesickness inducing… I guess I'll hear him out to hopefully not piss him off._

I asked, "Why are you offering me this?" I felt the question leave my mouth with a heavy undertone of what I was thinking, but luckily, I don't think he caught on.

"Like I said, I am running out of good material. I want to see a story of adventure and excitement. This is impossible in the world I'm in charge of. So! If you accept my proposal, what I'm going to do is send you to an entirely different world! Specifically: The world of Pokémon!"

"P-Pokémon?!" _Effing Pokémon? Yes! Please!_ "You mean the video game series? I thought you- "

"Yes, the video game. And the show and the books and the toys and the card game and- you know what I mean."

"Mate, have you seen my room? There's Pokémon stuff everywhere." I started to laugh. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, I was seriously considering turning down your offer before you said that. Hah, but why aren't you watching - "

"Why send someone from your world to the world of Pokémon instead of following someone already there?" He finished my question. "Because this way is much more fun." He shrugged. "Here's how it works: If you accept you stay in the world of Pokémon for ten years. During that time, time is stopped in your home universe. Magic Treehouse style. After the ten years are up, I offer you a few choices, including going home."

"I uh… don't know what Magic Treehouse is… But I guess it makes sense." He frowned at my response. "Hey, I don't have the omniscience of a god." There was a vacuum of silence as his golden eyes stared right through me.

"Now," the man finally said, filling the emptiness of soundless torture. "the world of Pokémon is actually rather dangerous, what with the feral creatures of unimaginable power and the roving gangs of criminals that are often pursuing some horrible cause and must be stopped. Therefore, I'm going to give you a budget. Use this budget to buy some supplies and skills before your adventure begins."

"Budget? You sure this isn't just Accounting?" The man in white handed me sheets of grey paper with blue text. At the top, it said _Pokémon Trainer CYOA._ "Oh C.Y.O.A., I know how these things work."

"This budget won't help you at all once you start your new life, so spend it all now." I grabbed my pencil and as it hovered over the form in front of me, I froze. The man asked, "What's wrong?"

I looked back up at him. "Would it be possible to say goodbye to my family first? I know they won't know I'm gone but… I'll miss them."

The man stared at me, much more sympathetically than before. He sighed a sombre breath. "I'll let you spend the rest of the day in your world, then after midnight, I'll bring you back. During that time, make sure you fill that out."

I simply said, "sure."

* * *

22/05/2018

I lay in bed, brain-dead from the big day I had. I finished my Media portfolio, had our last small choir practice before our House Music performance next week. But most of all _; That elven man._ _He wants me to go to the Pokémon world._ That excitement had festered in the back of my mind all day. Yet, I still doubted if what happened was real, but the grey pieces of paper I had in my hand afterward were definitive proof that I was there, wherever "there" was.

I looked at the clock, it was two minutes past twelve. I lay there wondering if he was telling the truth, or that perhaps he had forgotten about me, or maybe he got someone who was more deserving of the opportunity to go to the Pokémon world.

I held the grey sheets of paper in my hand. I couldn't read it in the pitch-black of my room, but I somehow managed to find the time to fill it out through all the homework, extra-curricular activities and possibly the final amount of time I had with my family.

My brother and I had a long session of Super Smash Bros. for WiiU together, and I had a long hug with both my parents before heading to bed.

I eventually decided to give up waiting and decided to try and get some sleep asleep, even if the promise to go to the Pokémon world was all in my head, tomorrow was going to be another big day.

* * *

I awoke in front of the man in white. "Are you ready Jack?" He asked.

"Yep." I replied.

"Great! Let me take a look at your sheet." The slips of grey paper materialised in a flash of golden light in the man's hand. "How did you like my random number generators?"

"Well, I got Sinnoh and an age close to my current one so that was good."

"No, I meant the presentation. What did you think of that?"

"Well, it was sort of unnerving to see a moving roulette wheel on a piece of paper, aside from that, it was cool."

"Hm?" The man exclaimed after looking at the next sheet. "I didn't think that Pokémon was common."

"It has a twenty percent encounter rate in the morning at Route 209, I checked."

"I see. Are there any specifications you want with your starter that wasn't on the sheet?"

"I… think being too specific would be a bit… is immoral the right word? What can I choose?"

"Nature, gender, and Ability if they have two regular ones."

"If the Nature can subtract the attack stat like Timid or Calm, that would be best, and Trace for the Ability."

"Ah, so you aren't going for… right. All set, you meet her soon after you've jumped. Oh, and before I forget, when you land, all your items will be nearby, and you'll be keeping everything you're wearing."

I looked down to see my uniform instead of the pyjamas I was wearing to bed. There was a black leather Colorado wallet in my left pocket. Inside it had one dollar and fifty cents in Australian coins, a USB, a debit card, a year-old student card with a picture of me and my birthdate on it, a Myki card, an EB World level 1 card and two photos. One photo with my brother in our first sibling school photo from ten years ago. The other a photo of me cosplaying poorly as Okabe Rintarou from Steins;Gate and a friend cosplaying as a maid character from an anime I didn't know of. In my other pocket were the headphones and pencil that I put there earlier.

Suddenly, a purple spinning vortex expanded before me. I couldn't see what was behind it. The man said, "Just jump in there and you'll off to a different dimension. Put on a good show for me, will you?" He was beaming.

"Will do!" I cracked my knuckles. "Time to breach the Steins Gate."

"Really?"

"What? When else am I going to get the opportunity to travel to different dimensions or world lines?"

"After ten years."

"But then I'll either forget or think of something different."

He stared at me in indignant silence, which was suddenly broken by an uncharacteristic snort. "Hehe! Oh, this is gonna be fun."

"How so?"

"It's going to be fun seeing you meet new people and their reactions to you."

"Okay… So, do I just go through the portal or-"

"Yes, go through the portal."

"Alright."

I ran, and then I jumped.


	2. Entry 2 - Lake of Emotion

21/06/2007 - 07:30 AM

The next thing I knew, I could feel the whistle of air rushing past my ears. Then I realised I wasn't standing on anything, even in that "pocket dimension" it felt like I was standing on some invisible yet solid floor. I then noticed the tug of gravity, pulling me… forward?

 _Oh… shit._ I was falling.

Below me, I saw a large body of water, surrounded by dense greenery. The lake was approaching me, quickly. That's when the adrenaline kicked in. My stomach constricted. For what felt like hours, I couldn't think. But after a benevolent moment of clarity, I shifted my weight to put my feet in the water first. Bellyflopping right onto strong surface tension was something I wanted to avoid if I could. I managed to somehow twist myself upright. I was maybe twenty metres up? Then fifteen - ten - two - impact.

I became submerged in cold liquid. I didn't notice pain, so I assumed I was unharmed. I swam to the surface and slowly made my way to shore. The bulky uniform I was wearing weighed me down, yet I managed to slowly freestyle to shallow waters where I walked the sandy ground to shore.

 _Why didn't that bastard tell me that would happen?_ I thought, _couldn't he have dropped me on dry land, not thirty metres in the sky? Now I'm all wet and cold and -_ then it hit me. My headphones and USB were in my pockets. I scrambled to get into my pockets and shake the water off my electronic equipment. My wallet seemed to protect my USB, but my headphones were a different story, I had no way to see if they still worked as water dripped from out of the metal grating in the buds. I sighed, _great._

I looked around. To my left was a large patch of knee-high grass and to my right was a pathway through some trees about fifty metres away. In front of me, the sun peeked over the high horizon of wood and leaves.

By one of those nearby trees was a bag. _The man in white mentioned my items would be nearby. What was his name again? Oh right, he said it didn't matter. Well stuff you, I'm calling you Elf._ The form that I filled out earlier said that I could purchase some items, I guessed that the bag may hold them since it was so close to my drop-in point. When I reached the bag, I examined its contents.

The bag itself had a similar design to my school backpack, it had two main pockets, a small front pocket, and a slot on each side to put a drink bottle or something similar. The backpack was navy-blue just like my school bag as well. I opened the back main pocket, it had a separate inside pocket to put something like a laptop or tablet, it's where I kept my iPad in my school bag. Inside this pocket was - _a wheel? Oh, it must be the collapsible bicycle._

I took out the bike and attempted to assemble it. It was actually very user-friendly; it took less than a minute to change the contraption into a fully functional red bicycle. In the main back pocket was a red electronic device that had a clamshell design, it reminded me of my old DSi XL. I opened the device and it looked almost exactly like that DS.

I pressed the power button and the dual screens lit up. The top screen said "Pokédex TIME: 07:33" and the bottom screen had a picture of a male figure (that I guessed was supposed to be me) next to the following information: "TRAINER CARD - IDNo. 11037 - NAME Jack Harvey - DOB 03/07/1989 - POKéDEX 720 - ADVENTURE STARTED 21 Jun. 2007." _Oh, the Pokédex is also my trainer card, that makes sense. But… it says 2007. Is that today's date? Why is it 2007? Did the western release of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl happen then? And why is my date of birth ten years earlier? I guess my Steins;Gate comment was more applicable then I thought. Does it count as time travel if I've gone to a parallel universe?_

With the decision of figuring all of that out later, I continued to examine the bag. I found a First Aid kit, five Pokéballs, three potions and a red cap which I decided to place on my head. In the front pocket I found banknotes. They seemed similar to my idea of Japanese yen. There were two ᵱ10000 notes, five ᵱ5000 notes, and five ᵱ1000 notes, I put them all in my somewhat damp wallet. Finally, I found a blue and white device that also had a clamshell design. Opening it and turning it on revealed that the device was a Pokégear.

It seemed to have phone, map and radio functions. _No Internet though. Well, I guess smartphones didn't become a big thing until 2008 or something._ I scanned the radio stations. I managed to find various music channels, some music I recognised from my own world and some music from the games. _The audio quality is terrible though._ Then I noticed a headphone jack the same place you would find it on a DS. _Guess I can test my headphones…_ I plugged the wet wire in and put the buds in my ears.

…

 _"Wake me up, before you go, go." There's the "Wham!" to get you up in the morning. This is perfect! I can listen to Pokémon music, in the Pokémon world! Speaking of which where am I?_ I opened the map application of my Pokégear, it was a map of the Sinnoh region. There was an indicator flashing over the easternmost lake of the region.

 _So, I'm at Lake Verity. Guess that means I should head to Twinleaf Town. Maybe I can get some supplies there, or meet some protagonists… Yeah, I'll meet the protagonists. Hopefully, I can get some dry clothes as well._

After some brief organisation, I put the Pokédex in my left pocket and the Pokégear (which my headphones linked to my ears) in my right pocket. My wallet replaced where I found the bank notes and everything else bar the bike was where I found it. I sat on the new bike; it was perfectly adjusted for my height. I pushed the pedals and began to leave the lake. That's when I heard a loud high-pitched growl.

It came from the knee-high grass. There were two black and white birds. _Magpies_ I thought, but then I realised that they couldn't be magpies, they were too big. Instead, they were a pair of Starly. The avian Pokémon seemed to be in a fuss over something. That's when the words form the C.Y.O.A. sheet jumped to the forefront of my mind.

Remembering those words, I swiftly turned my bicycle towards the Starly and peddled. _"You notice a bunch of bird Pokémon harassing something down the road."_ My fast and sudden approach was enough to spook the two miscreants, they screeched at me as wings beat against the air, the Pokémon fled. They were a lot larger than I expected, as large balls of grey feathers shot past my face. I looked down near the location they were roosted.

There was a small, frail humanoid figure, shaking vigorously yet defiantly holding its ground. It was as white as snow; its hair was an emerald green that resembled an upside-down bowl. It had hot-pink ellipsoid horns sticking out of the front and back of its head. It was a Ralts. " _After shooing them off, you see their target was a wild Pokémon."_

I slowly stepped off of my bike and crouched down next to the poor Pokémon. "Hey… It's okay now." I tried to say softly. "The Starly are gone now, you're okay."

The Ralts looked up at me, behind the bowl haircut were large eyes that were as red as their horns, not only the irises, but their eyes were also red with angry tears. The Ralts cooed, "Vuu..." before sobbing uncontrollably, releasing all of its tension.

"It's okay… It's okay…" I whispered as I slowly moved my hand towards the Pokémon. The Ralts flinched in response to my movement, but then suddenly grabbed it with its tiny hands and pulled my hand towards their horn. I remembered that Ralts can supposedly feel other creatures' emotions through their horns, I figured that was what it was trying to do. At that moment, all of my emotions were in the open. The concern and sympathy I had for the Ralts, the happiness of being in the world of Pokémon, the uncomfortable cold of my wet clothes, the Ralts felt as if it were theirs.

Then they let go. They stood there for a moment. It was a long moment, but then… ever so slowly. The Ralts walked towards me, one step… another step… and then all of a sudden, they embraced me. _"As thanks for rescuing it, the Pokémon seems to want to tag along with you."_ I embraced them back.

"Hey there, it's okay now."

"Vu…"


	3. Entry 3 - Elaine

08:00 AM

"Ralts - Female - Lv. 5. Type: Psychic/Fairy No. 280. The Feeling Pokémon. Height: 0.40m. Weight: 6.6kg. Ralts senses the emotions of people using the horns on its head. This Pokémon rarely appears before people. But when it does, it draws closer if it senses that the person has a positive disposition. If its trainer is in a cheerful mood, this Pokémon grows cheerful and joyous in the same way. If its horns capture the warm feelings of people or Pokémon, its body warms up slightly. It takes cover if it senses any hostility. Capture is required for more information on this specific Pokémon."

I had decided to not capture the Ralts yet, they - no, she - just had a big scare and asking her such a massive question could have been too much for the little thing to handle all of a sudden. So, I began our walk to Twinleaf Town where we could possibly rest, recuperate and maybe get to know each other. I would have preferred Sandgem Town, but from what I remember from the games, there's tall grass in the way, meaning we could run the risk of encountering wild Pokémon. I was walking instead of riding my bicycle, so I could read some information on my Pokédex without the risk of crashing.

The Pokédex was able to provide more information than it would in the games, which was just a sentence or two. It made me wonder how much information about Pokémon there was in this new world. Back home, everything about this world had been analysed to the finest detail, several times over.

From the information the Pokédex had, I was able to figure out a few things. First that the Ralts that was standing in my bag was a girl, so she couldn't become a Gallade, as that was exclusive to male Ralts. Second, the fact that Ralts was a fairy type meant that the sixth-generation type chart was in effect and that possibly Mega Evolution existed. Third, this Pokédex had seven hundred and twenty Pokémon registered, which meant Pokémon from Alola existed and that possibly Z-Moves also existed. Then lastly, that this Pokédex could possibly give me information such as moves and stats when a Pokémon is caught, like in the menus of your Pokémon in the games, though that was just a theory. _A game theo - nope. That was bad and should ashamed of yourself._

Though, there was one thing missing from my understanding of this interpretation of the Pokémon World. _How do battles work? Are they turn-based, like the games? Are they more fluid and improvised like the anime? Is it a hybrid of sorts? Will my knowledge of game mechanics even be useful in a battle? Gah… Hopefully, I can watch a battle at some point to figure it out. Either way, I should get to Twinleaf, I'm still bloody cold and wet, I can get a dry place to rest there._

As I walked, my shoes squelched against the dirt road. It was hard to walk with the soaked uniform being far heavier than usual. The bag wasn't as bad in comparison, years of heavy backpack hauling as a student seemed to have some benefits. I strongly smelt of saltwater, it reminded me of my times at the beaches near my grandmother's place. Yet despite the prompts for misery, I don't think I would have been happier anywhere else than right there, the first minutes of being with a real Pokémon.

The Ralts in my bag was half outside of it, leaning against my left shoulder. She was bunching up my thick jumper and squeezing it, trying to wring out the water from the looks of it. Luckily, she was physically unharmed from the Starly attack, though it must have been frightening.

"Aww…" I exclaimed as I watched the Ralts bunching up some of the woollen material and twisting it. "You don't have to do that but thank you."

I pet her head, she cooed in response, "Vaa." Her hair felt more like a plastic helmet than actual hair, yet you could still feel a pleasant warmth underneath. She seemed to push against my hand, sort of like she was rubbing back. I made a mental note that it seemed that Pokémon made more animalistic cries, similar to the games over saying their own name like in the anime as a form of rudimentary language.

"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?" I said to the Ralts. "My name is Jack."

The Ralts replied, "Vah… Ah… Vack… Sha…"

 _That seems… a lot less animalistic than I thought… Those sound like an attempt at English syllables… wait._

"Are you trying to say my name?"

Her face reddened slightly as she slowly nodded in response.

I couldn't help but "Naw!" at the cute antics. "Okay, here's how you say it; Jack… J… a… ck… J~a~ck~."

"Vash…?" she exclaimed.

I corrected her, "Jack…"

"Shach…"

"Jack…"

"Shack… Shack!"

"Almost there, it's just the "jay" sound. J~ack."

"Sh…"

"J~"

"Ch… Sh- Ch… Ch, J, Ch…"

"You almost got it! J~."

"Ch, J, Ch, Ch, J, J, J… J~ack… Jack!"

"You got it!"

"Jack! Jack!"

"Yep, that's my name." I cupped the Ralts' head in my hand and lightly rested my head against hers, in a really awkwardly shaped hug. _So, Pokémon can understand and comprehend human language, well at least this Ralts can._ "What about you, do you have a name?"

She looked at me and sadly shook her head.

"Then," I asked, "should I call you Ralts? Or would you like me to give you a name or nickname?"

She didn't respond for a moment, then she held up two fingers up to my face.

"Two? Does that mean the second option? That you want me to name you?"

She nodded.

 _Okay, what should I name you? I could name you after Chiaki. No, I want to be able to separate the two of them in my head. I could name her after what I name most my Gardevoir when playing Pok_ _émon… Yeah, let's go with that._ "How about… Elaine?" I discovered the name 'Elaine' years ago when I was looking through a bunch of girl's names online, and I really liked how it sounded. It had an elegance that stemmed from its lack of harsh sounding consonants.

She pondered the name for a moment as she stared at the sky ahead, the sun began to shine on her face as we turn to the east. Suddenly she pointed towards the direction we were walking. "Vu!"

I turn to see two, what looked to be, children shouting happily at each other over something. I recognised them. "Oh, hey. Other people. I'm going to go meet them. You can hide in the bag if you want. If that's okay with you?"

The Ralts shook her head, "Vuhu." and continued to keep perched on my shoulder.

I moved towards the children, they each threw something at each other simultaneously, then from each object, a flash of yellow light emerged and out came… something. It was hard to see what it was at that distance.

I quickened my pace as I heard the kids shout again.

The one on the left said, "Chimchar, use Scratch!"

The one on the right replied; "Withdraw!"

It was a Pokémon battle. _Perfect!_ The two Pokémon were a green-tortoise like creature and a monkey whose butt was on fire. Turtwig and Chimchar, two of the Sinnoh starter Pokémon.

The Chimchar's Trainer was an energetic kid, he had messy blonde hair that stuck up at both sides of his head, his stance was wide and lanky, not that unlike a monkey. He wore a white and orange short sleeve shirt and a green scarf. I recognised him as the rival character in the Sinnoh games.

The other trainer controlling the Turtwig was a far more quiet and reserved kid. He wore a red hunting cap over short hair that looked like it could have been blue in colour. His shirt was black with white sleeves, the colour separated by the beige of his backpack straps, and a red knitted scarf wrapped around his neck. He was the player character of the Sinnoh games, wearing his Diamond & Pearl outfit.

The Chimchar lashed out towards the Turtwig, who took the hit like a champ after positioning itself so that its bulkier shell would take the hit.

"Tackle!" The player character commanded.

The rival character replied, "Use Leer!"

The Turtwig began charging towards its opponent, who began to twist their face into a menacing grimace at the oncoming opponent. It didn't stop the other Pokémon as the Chimchar was sent flying. The rival character's Pokémon was on the floor, the fire burning from its rear end had gone out.

The player character sighed, "We won!"

His opponent responded, "What are you saying?! We ended up losing?"

"Yep."

"Ohh…" The rival exclaimed as he withdrew his Chimchar into its Pokéball. The Poke Ball shot out a red laser at the Pokémon, turning it into red light before absorbing it into the red and white sphere in his hand. "Whew! Let's go home. I'm beat after that battle. My Chimchar needs a rest, too. See ya, Lucas." Then he ran off in a southern direction.

 _Crap_ _,_ I thought, _I missed out on meeting the rival. Say "hi" before it's too late._ "Hey!" I called out; I ran towards the kid. "Congrats on your win."

He looked up at me as I came closer. "Oh, uh… thank you. It was my first Pokémon Battle." He responded politely; his accent sounded American, though it might be called something else here. _Unovan, possibly?_

"Your first one, huh?" _The rival battle only happened in the beginning at Platinum, but he's wearing his Diamond and Pearl get up. Is it a mixture of the two?_ "Well I only started watching towards the end, but from what I could tell you were really good."

"Ah- Thank you, sir." _I'm not old enough to be a "sir" am I?_ "May I ask, how come you're all wet?"

 _Oh… right… That would be weird._ "I uh… fell into Lake Verity." I laughed as I felt my face heat up. "Speaking of which, could you possibly take me to Twinleaf town? I uh…" _What do I say now? Do I tell the truth? Should I make up a reason? No making up a reason could possibly get me in a bad situation. Say the truth, but not the whole truth._ "We need a place to stay…" I point to the Ralts on my shoulder.

"Sure, I live in Twinleaf. It's right this way." He pointed towards the direction his rival ran. "You could stay at our place if you wanted." He smiled at me.

 _Aw, why is he so kind?_ "You sure? Shouldn't you ask your parents first?"

"I can ask mom when we get there." He said. "I'm Lucas by the way, and this is my new Pokémon, Turtwig." He points to the Sapling Pokémon by his feet, who was pawing curiously at a patch of dirt. "What are your names?"

 _Names? Plural? We haven't decided a name for Ralts yet._ "I'm Jack, and this is…" I whispered to the Ralts as I point to her, "is 'Elaine' okay?"

She nodded.

"Elaine, she's a Ralts."


	4. Entry 4 - Man in the Mirror

09:00 AM

I stared at myself in the mirror, and a man slightly different to myself stared back. The other figure in the mirror had my face, my height, and my posture, but there was something starkly different. He wasn't anywhere near overweight.

We had the following similarities: A round face that contained blue eyes, dark brown hair and some fuzz under the chin. We were both a hundred and eighty-seven centimetres tall and had a solid build. But this mirrored version of me had hair that was slightly longer than my short hair, acne in different places, and most prominently, he was fit. He had defined muscles and a lot less fat than I did. Last time I checked, I was a hundred and eight kilograms, but this man couldn't be anywhere near that weight. He was at least twenty kilograms lighter, though, without a scale, it was difficult to tell.

This was the new body that Elf gave me when I jumped into this world. _"You gain a body that is healthy and strong. Not Captain America strong, but close."_ That was one of the skills that I chose on the form that the man in white gave me. _Isn't the Cap able to keep a helicopter from taking flight by pulling it down? If I'm supposed to be close to that strong…_ Images of pushing cars around flashed in my mind. _I need to test this out. Though maybe not here, since I might break something._

Johanna, Lucas's mother, was kind enough to offer a place to stay for the day. I had just taken a shower to wash the saltwater off of me, though it confused me that a lake - which is normally freshwater - had water that was very similar to seawater. _Wait, isn't there a cave in Unova that's said to connect to Sinnoh? That might be why. There's probably a secret cross-continental water trail or something._ Clean clothes that appeared to be around my size were laid across the vanity. Apparently, they belonged to Lucas's father, a white shirt and a pair of jeans. _Hang on… something's missing… Oh, right… Jocks…_ _Undies and socks are gonna be a massive problem. I was wearing my only pairs._

"Johanna!" I yelled out the bathroom door with a towel around my waist, "Sorry, but I don't have any spare pairs of underwear, I'm not sure what I should do."

"Uh…" I hear down the hall, a charismatic and soothing voice, "You'll just have to wait until your pair dries, unfortunately. I'm really sorry about that." She was so polite, just like her son. _Maybe it's hereditary._

"No, it's okay, you've done so much already. I can wait."

"Well, it'll be another hour before your clothes are done in the dryer."

"Thank you so much!"

"No problem."

Before I closed the bathroom door, I noticed Elaine staring up at me, (luckily not at an uncompromising angle,) holding a hand to her mouth curiously.

"Jach!" she cooed as she raised her arms to reach out to me.

"Hi, Elaine." I picked her up and closed the door behind me. "You were perfect with the "j" sound, but you messed up the "ck." It's a bit like the sound you make when you cough."

"Ckh… Ckh…"

"A bit less air than that."

"Ck… Ck…"

"Perfect."

"Jack."

"Hello! You called me?"

I placed her on the bathroom floor. With the towel still around me, I sat on the bathmat cross-legged, careful not to accidentally expose myself, whether or not it was successful, I didn't know.

"You holding up ok?"

"Vu!" She nodded.

"That's good…"

"…"

 _I am so crap at starting conversations… What should I talk about?..._ Eventually, I attempted to talk about Johanna and her son. "It really nice of Lucas and his mother to let us stay wasn't it? What do you think of them?"

She thought for a moment. Then she slowly formed a fist and pointed her thumb upwards while she shrugged.

"So, you think they're alright?"

She nodded again, "Vuhu."

"Just alright?"

She nods again.

"Well, what do you think about me?"

She didn't even hesitate, she just leapt onto my thigh and hugged me.

"Aww…" I hugged her back. She felt like a small teddy bear wearing a helmet. "Hey, Elaine?" I asked as I un-hugged her slightly.

"Vuh?" Her red eyes looked up at me under her helmet hair.

"Would…" _How do I ask this?... Eh, stuff it._ "Would you like to be my first Pokémon?"

Again, with no hesitation, she nodded. "Vuhu!"

I reached into my bag, which was lying in the corner of the room, and pulled out a Pokéball. "I think you're supposed to press the button. Wait, no before that," I pressed the button as the Pokéball suddenly grew from the size of a golf ball to the size of a lawn bowl. "That's cool!" I became a bit giddy with the sudden reality of fictional science. I pointed the button at the front of the ball towards Elaine, "Here you go."

She tentatively pressed the button, and in response, the ball violently opened into two domes as the Ralts in front of me turned into a red silhouette, lost her shape, and then became confined within the suddenly closed Pokéball. The ball shook as if a rat or hamster was struggling against it. Then it shook again, and then again, and then there was a click, the click that signifies a caught Pokémon.

 _I have a Pokémon._ It didn't seem real. _I have a Pokémon._ I almost froze under the excitement; my hands were shaking. _How do I call you out?_ I pressed the button on the ball, it just changed its size back to a golf ball, so I pressed it again. I threw it half a metre in the air, nothing happened. "Uh… how do I call you out?"

Suddenly it opened as a yellow light took form at my torso. Elaine materialised, with her arms around my neck almost dangling. "Jack!"

"Hi, Elaine. So, if I want you to come out, do I just say so?"

"Vuhu." I felt her nodding.

"Huh. So, does that mean Pokéballs a voice commanded? Or do the Pokémon inside come out any time they want?" I said as I un-hugged her.

"Vu…" she put her hand up to her chin.

"You're not sure?" I asked.

She shrugged and held up two fingers. "Vu?"

"So, you think it's the second one but you're not sure?"

Elaine nodded.

"I guess we can experiment with it, is that okay with you?"

She nods again.

After a few minutes of returning and releasing the Ralts to and from her Pokéball, it turns out that it's the Pokémon that decides when to come out. They can hear you when they are inside the ball, so they know to come out when you call them. _Well, I guess Jessie's Wobbuffet and Misty's Psyduck were both able to come out of their Pokéball any time they wanted._

I decided to check my Pokédex again. "This thing said that it would have more information on you once I caught you."

"Vu?" She cooed as she leaned over my arm to read with me.

The user interface was near exactly the same as the Pokémon Platinum status screen for your Pokémon. "Elaine. Female. Caught in a Pokéball. Level 5. No Item. Pokédex Number 210. Name Ralts. Type Psychic/Fairy. Original Trainer Jack Harvey. ID Number 11037."

"Wait," I exclaimed. "My ID number is one, one, zero, three, seven?!" I let out a voiceless giggle. "You have got to be kidding me!" Elaine looked up at me, confused. "It's a reference to a video game. If I explain it would spoil it. I might get to show it to you sometime." _Seriously Elf? You don't like my Steins;Gate reference but you do this?_

I continued to read through the screen. "Experience Points 156. To Next Level 114."

"So, experience works like in the games. That's good." I pressed right on the D-Pad to flip to the next page. "Bold Nature." I read out loud. _That's plus defence minus attack, not bad._ "I guess that describes you pretty well, we just met and you're already hugging me."

"Vu!" I felt her squeeze my arm.

"21 June 2007. Twinleaf Town. Caught at level 5. Often dozes off." _Often dozes off means that Elaine might have a perfect IV in HP, right?_ "Likes sour food."

"It says here that you doze off a lot." I pointed at the Pokédex as I looked at Elaine.

Her cheeks began to redden as she furiously shook her head. "Vu! Vuhu!"

"Hey, don't worry, I tend to do the same thing sometimes." There were multiple times that I fell asleep in class. It was the worst in English, where I had to force myself to keep my eyes open every couple of seconds. It wasn't boring, it was just warm and cosy in the classroom. I flipped to the next page.

"Health Points 19. Attack 7. Defence 9. Special Attack 11. Special Defence 9. Speed 9. Ability Trace." Elaine's stats. They seemed pretty standard for a Ralts, minus the buffed defence due to her nature. There could have been worse natures, a lot worse. "Growl 40/40 PP. Confusion 25/25 PP." _Elaine know confusion? Perfect!_ Confusion was the first move that a Ralts can learn that deals damage, which it learned at level six in the Sinnoh Pokémon games. However, it changed to level four in the later games.

Confusion was a fifty power, hundred accuracy psychic special attack that had a chance of confusing the target. Growl was a normal status move with a hundred accuracy that reduced the opponent's attack by one stage. Elaine's ability Trace meant that when she was sent out to battle, she gained the ability of the opposing Pokémon.

"Well, I guess I know a whole lot about you now." I close the Pokédex and turn to Elaine. "It wouldn't be fair if I didn't tell about myself wouldn't it."

"Vu!" She perked up.

"You think that's a good idea?"

She nodded vigorously.

"I don't think anyone has been that interested in me before. Hehe." _Should I tell her the whole truth? Yeah, she trusts me it's only fair, and it's not like she can tell anyone... yet._ "My full name is Jack Harvey; you can still call me Jack. And... I'm not from Sinnoh. I come from a parallel universe where Pokémon only exist inside a video game."


	5. Entry 5 - Twinleaf Town

10:15 AM

I told Elaine about the man in white, that I'm a high school student from Australia, and that I have only ten years in this world before I can go back home. I don't know if she thought I was telling the truth or not though, I also don't know if emotions can convey if a person is lying or not.

After I told Elaine my story, she fell asleep in my arms. It left me alone with my thoughts. I was able to just relax for a moment and listen to the radio on my Pokégear. It was playing the theme to Twinleaf Town. _Why is it that the music perfectly describes my the situation. Is this that white man's doing?_ Strangely, despite getting no sleep, I wasn't tired. Maybe this body had some sleep of its own before I inhabited it? I still couldn't fully believe it, I was in the world of Pokémon, with a Ralts in my arms. I never even had dreams this wish-fulfilling.

There was a knock at the door, which woke up Elaine. "Hello? You in there?" The voice wasn't Lucas's or Johanna's, it was a new voice yet, it wasn't new. I've heard it before, years ago.

"Yeah, hold on." I stood up, making sure the towel was tight around my waist. I opened the door to see a girl, very similar to Johanna but a lot younger, she looked to be roughly the same age as Lucas and was just a bit shorter than him. She had dark blue eyes, hair of the same colour that reached just above her waist. She wore a short sleeveless black and pink dress over a white undershirt. It was the female playable character. Her canonical name is…

"Hi, I'm Dawn! Mom told me to give these to you." She held out a basket with all my clothes inside it. _"Mom," are Dawn and Lucas siblings? If so, does Professor Rowan have an assistant? Does Dawn have a Pokémon? Oh, wait. I'm supposed to talk right now._

"Hi, I'm Jack. Thanks for my clothes. Could you tell your mother thanks for cleaning them? She's a lifesaver."

"No need to worry." Then she jogged down the hall.

My jocks were part of a day of the week set. Each one of them had a day of the week printed onto the waistband. This one was for Monday. _I need to buy more undies._ "Hey Elaine, can you turn around for a moment?" With that, I got dressed in the white shirt and jeans that Johanna had lent me, and folded my school uniform into my bag, including my size 13 shoes. _I'm going to have to buy new shoes and socks as well._

I walked out of the bathroom and went down the stairs to the living room. The layout of the house was very similar to the games, but there was an extra floor between the main floor and the bedrooms, plural. I could hear the sound of something cooking. _Oh god, I'm getting hungry._

Lucas and Dawn were both playing with the Turtwig that Lucas had received earlier on the pair of bean bags in front of the TV. A cat-like Pokémon was sleeping on the table, it had a long tail that curled multiple times, it was Johanna's Glameow. I turned the corner to see Johanna putting some chicken fillets onto a pan. _Wait… do chickens exist? What is she cooking? Is she cooking Pokémon?_ "What you cooking?" I asked as casually as I could muster, Elaine must have been able to sense my nervousness as she turned in my arms to look at me.

"Oh, hello! I'm making chicken burgers." _Oh, thank god._ "Would you like some?"

I sighed in silent relief. "Yes, please." Elaine tilted her head in confusion.

"I'll prepare some food for your Pokémon as well." That statement seemed to distract Elaine from my previous unease.

"Johanna, you've done so much for me, it's making me feel guilty. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Oh no, I shouldn't ask anything of a guest of mine."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. But thank you for the offer."

"Ok then." I walked over to the table and took a seat.

As I pulled out my Pokégear. Johanna suddenly asks me, "If you don't mind me asking, are from the Dochaku region?"

"Hmm?" _Dochaku? The hell is Dochaku? Is that the equivalent of Australia in this world? I need to see a world map. Hold on, does my Pokégear have a world map?_ I quickly entered the map application and scanned for a world map option. _There it is!_ After I pressed the "L" button, the map zoomed out. I kept my eyes on the south-east, where Australia is on the world map of my world. The whole map looked exactly like the world map from home. I navigated the indicator to over the top of the Australian continent and there it said, _Dochaku._

"Well, your accent sounds like your from Dochaku," Johanna said.

"Uhh, yeah. I'm from Dochaku."

"So what's it like?"

"Dochaku?" _I've never been to this world's Dochaku, crap! What do I say? Just describe Australia mate!_ "Well, I'm from the more southern part of the region. So, any of the stereotypical eternal summer stuff doesn't really apply to where I live."

"What brings you all the way to Sinnoh, and even then why Twinleaf town?" She asked as she took a seat opposite me and began petting her Glameow.

 _Johanna, you're killing me here._ "I sort of just… ended up here. One minute I was home then the next I was here… I don't really know."

"So what are you going to do next?"

I… hadn't really thought of that. Maybe I could take on Sinnoh's Gym Challenge?"

She leaned forward, "What about Pokémon Contests?"

"Heh, of course, a Top Coordinator would say that."

She leaned back in surprise and put her free hand up to her cheek, "Oh, so you know about me? Hehe."

"Well, you have trophies and newspaper clippings everywhere." Which was true, throughout the room were framed pictures of her winning various Pokémon Contests.

"I want to take them down, but my daughter insists that they should stay there."

"Dawn?"

"Yes, she wants to follow in my footsteps. Hehe."

Suddenly Dawn stands up behind her mother, "I'm going to be the next Top Coordinator!"

Lucas replied, "You need a Pokémon first, Dawn."

"That's why I going to Professor Rowan in Sandgem Town tomorrow." She pointed at her brother, "And you're gonna take me."

"You didn't mention anything like that before." Lucas's Turtwig was tugging at his scarf, it was trying to get the attention that it had been receiving earlier.

"They grow up so fast." Johanna suddenly proclaimed.

"Hmm?"

"I still remember them when they were brought into the world together. Lucas was sound asleep, and Dawn was screaming her little head off."

"So they're twins?" I asked.

"Yeah. It was around their age when I started my journey around Sinnoh, I don't think I'm ready to see them leave yet. Dawn's all set to leave as soon as she can, and Lucas, well he'll quietly follow her sister to the ends of the earth and back. Unless Barry comes and drags him away. Haha."

 _They're the protagonists Jack, take the chance while you can._ "If they want to go on an adventure, I could go with them, make sure they don't get into any trouble."

"No, no, don't trouble yourself with that. It's not like they're going away from home tomorrow or anything."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."


	6. Entry 6 - Hunting the Legend

12:30 PM

The front door suddenly slammed open and a blonde-haired kid blasted into the room. "Lucas, I just had a great idea!" the kid yelled, "Come to Lake Verity, and I'll fine you if you're late!" Then he ran out just as fast as he appeared.

"Mom?" Lucas exclaimed after finishing his chicken burger.

Johanna replied from the kitchen, "I heard him, you can go."

Dawn stood up from her chair, "I wanna go too!"

"Sure, as long as you're both back home before dinner," Johanna replied as her children ran out the door in pursuit of Barry.

I had a pretty good idea as to what this was about. In Pokémon Platinum, Barry asks the player to go to Lake Verity with them to attempt to catch Mesprit, one of the legendary Lake Guardians. They don't find it, but instead, they run into - _Cyrus._

"Do you mind if I go and keep an eye on them?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh, not at all."

"That okay with you Elaine?" I looked down to see my Ralts sleeping in my arms. It made me content to see how comfortable she became with me so quickly. I grabbed my bag and ran after the kids, making sure not to wake up Elaine in the process. Thankfully, as I learned later, she's a heavy sleeper.

One thing that quickly became apparent as I ran towards the edge of town, was how much stamina I had. It was far more than I was used to. As I pumped my lungs and legs, I realised it all felt just so easy to do, like I could run for hours and hours. I suddenly became overwhelmed with a feeling of liberation. _I really, really should have exercised more back at home._

I was able to reach the group of kids outside of town, where they had stopped to talk. Well, it was more accurate to say that one of them was berating the other two.

"Too slow! Lucas, I'm sick of waiting!" Barry yelled.

"What was it you wanted me for?" Lucas asked.

"Before that, what's your sister and-" he stopped to look at me for a moment, "this guy doing here?"

"What guy?" he turned around, "Oh. Hi, Jack."

"Hello."

Dawn turned to me and asked, "Why are you here?"

"I'm just here to keep an eye on you guys."

"Well the more the merrier I guess," Barry said as he nodded to himself. "I'm going to see Professor Rowan, so I can thank him properly. So, I had this great idea. Listen up, okay?" His arms were wildly flailing around as he spoke, "You know how they say a legendary Pokémon lives in the lake?"

"Yeah, what about it? Are you going to try to catch it or something?" Dawn asked sarcastically.

"You guessed it!" he replied, "Let's catch that Pokémon."

"Wait, really? I was joking. That sounds awesome!"

"Why do you want to do that?" Lucas asked.

"That'll make Professor Rowan happy. I'm sure of that!" then he ran closer up to the three of us, "The four of us together, we've got nothing to fear! Let's go!" He ran west towards the lake.

Dawn was hot on his heels, "C'mon guys! Let's go!"

Lucas and I sighed and then ran after the two of them.

I didn't have an infinite pool of stamina unfortunately, the run to the lake had left me short of breath, Barry was just too fast. Lucas and Dawn likely had years of experience with him since they weren't as out of breath as I was. _Maybe I need a better breathing technique?_

"What's going on?" Lucas asked as he met the unusually still Barry.

The answer was standing at the shore of the lake. A man with spiky sky-blue hair, and a strange suit that was reminiscent of a helmetless astronaut. His back was turned to us.

"The flowing time…" the man spoke his monologue to the lake, "the expanding space… I will make it mine one day… Cyrus is my name. Remember it. Until then, sleep while you can, legendary Pokémon of the lakebed…" Then he turned around and walked towards us. His face was square and stern, the scowl he wore seemed to be permanent.

"Allow me to pass. Step aside." We were blocking the exit. The kids waddled sideways, following his orders, I didn't. The man, Cyrus, stared at me, we stood eye to eye. His cold grey eyes reflected no light, they looked like the eyes of a dead man. The suddenly awake Elaine quivered under my grasp. "I said step aside," he repeated.Begrudgingly, I stepped aside, and Cyrus left.

"What was that about? Weird guy…" Barry exclaimed.

"Yeah…" Dawn replied. "Okay, guys! Let's catch that legendary Pokémon!"

"Wait!" Barry suddenly shouted.

"What?!" Lucas asked.

"We don't have anything on us!"

"Have what?" Dawn asked.

"You know, Poké Balls! P-O-K-accent-E Balls! If we don't have those, we can't catch Pokémon or take them around with us!"

"Oh…" Lucas exclaimed.

"So, we came all this way to catch a Pokémon without bringing Poké Balls?!" Dawn shouted. "Seriously, Barry!"

Lucas said, "Do you think Professor Rowan would give us some if we asked him? He said to visit him in his lab if we needed anything."

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Barry replied. "Okay guys, I'll race you! First one to the professor's lab in Sandgem Town rules!" then he began running.

"Wait!" I shouted, "I have some Poké Balls!" the skid I heard probably meant that I somehow stopped Barry in his tracks. "I only have four though, so we'll each have to hunt with only one Poké Ball."

"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?!" Barry asked indignantly.

"You were so impatient you didn't give me the opportunity."

"What are you talking about? There were plenty of chances for you to talk!"

"Such as?"

"Uh… I'm sure there was at least one, but I can't think of any at the top of my head. Anyway, enough of that! May we borrow your Poké Balls please, sir?"

I sighed, "Sure, though I don't think I'm old enough to be a 'sir' yet."

So, the four of us split up, each with a Poké Ball in hand, in order to find the Legendary Pokémon. Well, more specifically, Barry, Dawn, and Lucas were looking for it, I was keeping an eye on all of them as they waded through tall grass and bushes. They were all still kids, after all.

"Hey, Elaine?"

"Vu?" She had moved from my arms to my bag, leaning over my left shoulder.

"What do you think of these kids?"

"Hm." She nodded noncommittedly.

"Are you okay?"

She looked to the entrance of the lake.

"Are you thinking about the man with blue hair?"

She nodded again.

"Yeah… I understand." Ralts can sense the emotions of others, and that man clearly didn't sit right with Elaine. The cool summer breeze made waves out of my white shirt as the trees conversed with each other. "I'm certain we'll meet him again."

"Dammit!" I suddenly heard Barry scream. He was standing near the patch of tall grass where I met Elaine.

"What happened?" Dawn asked.

"I accidentally caught a Starly."

"Well you're not getting another Poké Ball." I told him.


	7. Entry 7 - Grudge and Fear

05:00 PM

Music

The sun was still high in the sky, it would be at least an hour before it would begin to set. Barry had spent the past hours hounding Lucas, he was attempting to assist him in finding the Legendary Pokémon.

"Have we checked that bush over there?"

"Yes, Barry."

"Let's check again!"

"Really? Okay then."

 _Lucas's patience really is an admirable thing._

"Dammit! It's not here!"

 _Extremely admirable._ I was sitting on the grass cross-legged, petting Elaine's head as she was sleeping on my lap. I had my headphones connected to my Pokégear, I was listening to a radio station that played instrumental music from the Pokémon games, it was playing the wild Pokémon battle music from Diamond and Pearl.

Dawn came up to me and sat to my right with a massive sigh. "I'm exhausted."

"You're not the only one," I replied, pointing to the sleeping Pokémon. "Do you still have your Poké Ball?"

"Yep! It might take a while, but we'll catch that Pokémon eventually."

"Do you even know what the Pokémon is?"

"Of course I do. We've been playing here ever since we were kids. It's the Legendary Guardian Pokémon of Lake Verity."

"Do you know what it looks like?"

She was silent.

"You don't, do you."

"W-well, we'll know what it looks like when we see it."

We could hear Barry shouting incomprehensible instructions to his friend, before taking and throwing the Pokéball that Lucas was holding.

"How old are all of you?" I asked.

"Lucas and I are eleven and Barry just turned twelve a few weeks ago. How old are you?"

"Eigh-" _No, wait. I'm not. It's June 2007 right now, and my trainer card says I was born in 1989._ "Sorry, seventeen. I'll be eighteen in a couple days." _Again._

"So you're almost an adult."

"Y-yeah. Hey Dawn?"

"Hm?"

"What everyone's full names?"

"Full names? Well I'm Dawn Hikari Diamond, my brother is Lucas Koki Diamond, mom is Johanna Ayako Pearl and Barry is Barry… something Platinum."

 _So their names are English canonical name, Japanese canonical name and then Version. I don't think that's a coincidence._ "What about your father?" That's the biggest question.

"Dad? He's gone to Kalos for his work. His name is Harry John Diamond." _So a complete stranger. Yay…_ "What's your full name?" Dawn asked.

"Jack Harvey."

"You don't have a middle name?"

"Nope."

"That's weird."

"Weird is cool."

Barry and Lucas had come up to us, Barry had a defeated stride while Lucas happily walked with a Starly perched on his arm.

"What happened?" Dawn asked.

"I threw Lucas's Poké Ball at some moving bushes, I thought it was the guardian, but it just a stupid Starly!" He explained as he collapsed onto the ground face down.

"Patience is a virtue," I exclaim.

"You sound like my mom," Barry replied.

"Well you both have Starly now, why don't you get to know them. Let them meet the rest of your Pokémon."

Barry lifted up his head. "Hey, that's a good idea." He jumped up and threw two Poké Balls into the air, "Come out guys." The red and white spheres popped open to summon the fire monkey and the bird Pokémon. Lucas, in response, silently called out his Turtwig.

The Pokémon exchanged greetings, it was as if they're chirps were a part of a small choir performance. It looked like the two Starly knew each other as they didn't introduce themselves to each other but instead seemed to have some sort of avian conversation. Suddenly they stopped when they set their eyes on me. They started to glare, they glared at the Ralts sleeping on my lap. _Wait, are these the Starly who were harassing Elaine._

"Elaine?" I said as I shook her slightly.

She stirred slightly. "Vm…" She groggily sat up and looked at the duo of Starly. Then she jolted to a stand, "Vah!" and ran around and behind me. "Jack!" That confirms it.

"Are they the same ones?"

She peeked around the back of me and nodded. "Vah." She was eyeing the Starly with a fierce glare underneath of emerald hair.

"Did your Ralts just talk?!" Barry asked loudly.

Oh… right. "Uh, yeah. Though she can only say my name."

"That's so awesome!" He said as his eyes shone in childlike wonder.

"Forget about that, in case you haven't noticed your Starly and Elaine don't seem to like each other that much."

Lucas walked up to the Starly and attempted to calm them down by petting them. "Why do you think they don't like each other?" He asked before the Starly to his left pecked at his hand. "Ow! Sorry… I won't do it again."

"I don't know the whole story, but I found Elaine here this morning being harassed by two Starly, I'm guessing they're the same ones."

"Now that's not very nice!" Barry exclaimed. "Guess we'll have to teach these Pokémon a lesson in kindness, won't we guys! Uh…" He looked around. "Guys… where's Dawn?"

 _Crap she's not next to me! Where did she go?! She must have run off somewhere. Did something happen in the anime about her going missing at Lake Verity? She… meets Mesprit, on her own – no, wait! She came to the Lake when she was looking for Piplup, they both meet Mesprit. Is that's what's happening now?_

Lucas stood up. His movements became faster and more panicked. "Dawn?! He was shaking. "DAWN!" Then he started running.

"Lucas!" I shouted, "Wait! Just, wait!" I came to a stand, my pleas seemed to have stopped him.

"What do you mean wait?! My sister might be in danger!" His anxiety was infectious.

I could feel my hands begin to sweat. _Dammit, dammit, dammit._ _He needs to calm down, I promised Johanna I'd keep an eye out on them._ I could feel a tugging around my ankle. I looked down to see Elaine, concerned. _Calm down first, Jack. Right… Need to clear my thoughts. First, keep us from splitting up._

"Splitting up will just make things worse, we need to stick together so that when one of us we find Dawn, we don't have to find the rest of the group."

"But that'll take too long!" Barry countered.

Lucas replied, "Yeah, that'll take to long."

"Then, tell your Starly to do an aerial search. They do that all the time in the anime."

"The what?" Barry asked.

"Nevermind, just – tell them already."


	8. Entry 8 - Dawn's Reflection

05:30 PM

"Dawn!" It was hard for me to keep up with Lucas. Both for me and Barry. "Dawn, where are you!" His voice sounded dry and like it could fail at any point, which it had, a lot. _Puberty is a harsh beast,_ I thought.

"Lucas, hold on… I can't keep up." Barry tried to say through his harsh panting.

Barry's Starly was circling above the shoreline over the other side of the lake, which was the signal for when one of them had found Dawn. As soon as Lucas heard the Starly calling out to us, he had started running.

 _That kid needs some anxiety medication… I'll need some as well… Wait, crap. How am I supposed to get it? The stuff I'm on, you're not supposed to suddenly stop taking. Jack, you're getting distracted, focus on the task at hand._

"Lucas?! Is that you?!" _There she is._

He bolted towards the sound. "Dawn!"

"There you are! You found-" Lucas wrapped his arms around his sister. I think he was crying? "Hey, bro. No need to worry, we're fine."

 _We're?_

Suddenly a loud chirping came from the siblings which Lucas didn't seem to notice.

"Hey, you're squishing Piplup!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Huh?" He suddenly let go. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I- I didn't notice you there, I didn't mean to hurt you." _At least he's back to his polite self._

Dawn was holding in her arms a blue penguin Pokémon with a very rounded head. A Piplup.

"Hey, where did you get that Piplup?" Barry asked.

"Oh, yeah! I found him… Him? Him, wandering around, then when I went to say 'hello,' he ran off and got caught in an Ariados nest. I was able to get him out and then he fought back against the Ariados with the move Bide." _Like in the anime._ "It was so awesome, you should have seen it."

"You fought a nest of Ariados?!" Barry exclaimed, "That's so awesome!"

"You what?" Lucas exclaimed, "A-are you sure you're-"

"I already said there's no need to worry." She interrupted, "Now I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving." Then she walked off deeper in the forest.

"Wait, Dawn! That's the wrong way." I exclaimed, "The way to Twinleaf is there." I said as I pointed south-east across the lake.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "uh… Hehehe, oops."

05:45 PM

As the four of us walked home, Dawn gave us a more detailed recount of her small adventure. It was almost exactly like the first episode of the Diamond and Pearl anime. The only difference was the lack of the Chimchar that taunted Piplup and stole his food from that episode. All of our Pokémon had been returned to their Poké Balls they seemed tired after all the stress and excitement, all except the Piplup Dawn was carrying in her arms.

"When I threw a Poké Ball at Piplup, he didn't even go inside." she said as she lifted said Piplup to eye level, "There was the red light, but then it disappeared and the Poké Ball came back. Why do you think that happened."

"That's weird." Barry exclaimed, "Cause normally when a Poké Ball fails it does so after the Pokémon goes into it, right?"

"That's what I thought," Dawn replied.

"Then you should fine the guy who gave that Poké Ball since it's not working."

I chimed in. "No, Barry. I gave it to her for free. Also, she has no proof that she purchased it in the first place. So neither you or Dawn can fine me."

"Wait, really?" Barry asked.

"Yes, really. Though I'm sort of joking around. I mean, well… I joke by taking things to their logical extremes."

"You're weird," Barry replied.

"Yeah, and?" _At least I'm right._ "Maybe the Poké Ball didn't work because someone already owns that Piplup and it has already been caught in a different Poké Ball."

"Wait, so this is someone else's Piplup?" Dawn asked.

"At least I think so."

"Aww…"

"What, did you want the Piplup?"

"Yeah…" She looked down at the Water Pokémon in her arms. "So you already have a Trainer then?"

The Piplup looked up and tilted their head confusedly, they chirped.

"If I were to guess," I said, "that Pokémon probably belongs to Professor Rowan."

"What makes you say that?" Barry asked.

"Well, you and Lucas were given Turtwig and Chimchar right after Professor Rowan had visited Lake Verity, right?"

"Yeah.."

"Well, maybe the Piplup along those two escaped and got ran all the way here?"

"That makes sense, I guess?"

"Hold on!" I turned around to see Lucas out of breath an leaning against a tree. "Could you guys walk a bit slower please?"

"No way!" Dawn replied sarcastically, "I want to get home as soon as possible for dinner. Mom's cooking pasta."

"Are you okay Lucas?" I asked.

"Yeah, my feet are just a bit sore," he replied.

 _A bit sore? Dude, if I didn't take the Physical Fitness perk, I would not have been able to walk and run this distance like we have._ "I could carry you home."

"No, you don't have to do that. I'll be fine."

"How are your feet sore?"

"It's just my toe, it's nothing that bad."

 _Just a toe?_ "At least let me take a look."

"Okay then." He took off his shoe and sock off of his left foot to reveal that the side of his ring toe had bubbled into a blister.

"You've got a blister."

"What does that mean?"

"Your toe has been rubbing against your shoe and the friction caused it to swell." I laid my bag on the ground and reached for my first aid kit.

"What are you doing?" Dawn asked.

"I'm going to cover it up with a band-aid or something like that so that it doesn't rub against something, there they are." As I applied the band-aid to his toe, I said, "I'm surprised my feet aren't blistered, since my shoes and socks aren't designed for this amount of movement." _Though that might be because of Physical Fitness,_ _I had no way of knowing._

"Do you get blisters, Jack?" Barry asked.

I replied. "Only if I've been walking in bad shoes for a long time." I turned back to Lucas. "Put your sock and shoe back on and I'll carry you." I didn't want to make the blister any worse.

"Uh… thank you, sir."

"Please, just call me Jack."

"Oh, sorry. Thank you, Jack."

I carried my backpack the other way round, as I gave a piggy-back ride to Lucas.

"No fair," Dawn exclaimed. "How come I don't get a piggy-back ride."

Lucas was, really light. _I could do this for days._ I responded, "Because the layers of the skin on your feet haven't separated due to intense friction." _I love this perk._

05:50 PM

We had made it to the entrance of Lake Verity when Dawn suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, I haven't told you guys what I saw!"

"What did you see?" Lucas asked.

"Just before I saw your Starly circle above me, we saw the Legendary Pokémon!"

"You what!" Barry shouted. "Did you catch it!"

"No, I didn't. I thought my Poké Ball wasn't working."

"Then what did it look like?"

"Well when we saw it, it was sort of see through, but you could tell it was there. It was floating above the lake, like a ghost."

"Hey Lucas," I asked, "could you grab my Pokédex from my left pocket?"

"Oh, sure." It was a bit awkward, but he managed to grab it.

"Can you search for the Pokémon 'Mesprit?'

"Mesprit? How come?"

"You'll see, once you find it, show it to Dawn."

"Okay…?"

"What's going on," Dawn asked.

I replied, "I want to know if the Pokémon that Lucas is about to show you is what you saw."

"Okay, let me see." She exclaimed as she came closer to the two of us.

"Hold on, I'm still typing the name." Lucas retorted. "Did you say 'Mespirit?'"

I replied, "Mesprit. M, e, s, p, r, i, t."

"Oh, Me **sprit**." He confirmed. "Is this what you wanted?" He showed the picture of a grey imp slash fairy type creature with two long tails and pink hair. It's forehead the tips of its tails each had a red jewel embedded into it.

"Yep."

Dawn looked over the image and pondered with a grimace. "I think it had the same shape, I don't know about the colors though." The Piplup in her arms firmly nodded in response.

"So you said this Pokémon is called Mesprit?" Barry asked. "It's so cool! I just want to catch it even more!"

I told him "I'm not giving you another Poké Ball."

"That's okay, I'm going to ask if I can get some more from Professor Rowan tomorrow morning. See ya guys later, I'm going home!" Then all of a sudden he ran off ahead of us towards town. I heard two simultaneous sighs from the twins.

"He's always like this, isn't he?"

"Yep." they replied in sync.

06:05 PM

When we arrived back at the Twins house, the sun was still up, it looked like it wouldn't set for at least an hour. _It is summer here, so the sun would be up longer. But it's only been around 20 degrees max, it's been pretty cool all day. I'll have to ask Johanna what the general weather is like in Sinnoh._

"Hi, Mom! We're back!" Dawn called out.

"Did you have fun?" Johanna replied from the couch watching what looked to be a news program. There was a pot of what I assumed to be pasta sauce simmering over a stove.

"Yeah, Lucas and Barry caught Starlys and I met this Piplup."

"Oh my, you've been busy. Oh Jack, how come you're carrying Lucas, is he alright?"

"It's just a blister, I'll be fine," Lucas replied.

I said, "I covered it up with a band-aid to stop it from rubbing any more." I set her son on the couch next to her. "I wanted to play it safe, so I carried him the rest of the way back."

"Band-aid?" Johanna echoed, "Is that a bandage of some kind?"

 _Wait… is "Band-aid" an Aussie thing? Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard someone say that in America._ "Oh, it's a Dochaku thing, you call them a bandage I think?"

Lucas removed his socks and shoes, displaying the 'band-aid' to his mother. "I see," she said.

"Mom? When's dinner going to be ready?" Dawn asked.

"It should be ready in about half an hour."

"Okay!"

"What are you cooking?" I asked Johanna.

"Pasta Bolognese, though it's a lot different from a normal bolognese."

"How so."

"Come on, I'll show you." She got up and walked over to the kitchen, I followed. "If Dawn knew how I made this, she wouldn't eat it at. It's tough to get kids to eat their greens nowadays."

"Hehe, yep." _Just look at me for instance._

"The pasta sauce is actually based on a vegetable juice, I disguise it with various herbs and spices so that Dawn would eat it."

"You're kidding, my Mum does the exact same thing."

"Oh really? Well, great minds think alike."

"What sort of spices do you use?"

"Oh, I use onion powder, minced garlic, mixed herbs, ground cinnamon, pepper, oregano, gravy powder, tomato paste and bay leaves. You have to take out the bay leaves before you serve."

 _This is literally the same meal, what the hell!_ "I… can't wait to try it." _Now excuse me while I have an existential crisis._

06:30 PM

The pasta bolognese, topped with grated cheese, tasted just like it did at home. _This has got to be that elven man's doing because there is no way that two people can have matching recipes this complicated by sheer coincidence._ "Did my kids behave today?" Johanna asked.

"Yeah, they're really nice kids." _Should I tell her about Dawn going missing? No, the kids can do that if they want._ "I'm sure they have stories to tell about what happened today."

Dawn took this opportunity to describe the events that transpired when meeting Piplup. Johanna reacted about as well as any mother would when being told their child was in danger, in this case, it was a silent shock.

All of our Pokémon were eating from a large collective bowl of what looked like dried food, except Piplup who refused to eat anything unless it was in its own bowl. I let Elaine try a bite of the pasta, she didn't seem to dislike it, but she quickly went back to the large bowl.

After dinner, Dawn suddenly stood up, "Oh! Jack, I still have your Poké Ball, I need to give it back to you."

"No, you can keep it," I told her.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, keep it. Barry and Lucas used theirs so you can use the Poké Ball sometime later."

"Thank you, Jack."

"You're welcome."

10:30 PM

The twins had been sent to bed about an hour ago, I was sitting on the couch with Elaine sleeping on my lap. I was processing the hectic events of the day.

 _So… I'm a Pokémon trainer. Well, I haven't had a battle yet, I should ask Elaine if she's okay with battling, or if she prefers a more domestic lifestyle. I don't even know if I would enjoy Pokémon Battles. Either way, I'm pretty sure that the kids are going to start their adventure tomorrow. Should I join them? I don't know for certain if Dawn will end up meeting Ash and Brock, and it's likely Lucas is going to tag along with his sister. What about Barry? Will he be running off on his own? Either way, I think someone should be there for them, they're kids. Especially since I saw Cyrus…_

"I'm sorry I don't have another bed for you," Johanna said as she walked up to the bed with a rug and pillow.

"No it's alright, you've done enough for me as it is… Hey, Johanna?"

"Hm?"

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Oh sure, what is it?"

"In the morning, I'm planning to head out, but I don't have that much. I mean I've got Elaine and some technology and fifty k, but I have near nothing in terms of food, clothes, gear… Is there a place I could buy that sort of stuff?"

"Well, if you're looking for a big shop, you'd have to head to the Poké Mart in Sandgem Town. They have everything a Trainer might need. Food for travel, camping equipment, Poké Balls and medicine for your Pokémon. For anything else, you'd have to go to Jubilife City."

"Okay, thank you. Hey uh… I… I think your kids are going to ask you if they can go on a journey through Sinnoh tomorrow."

"What makes you say that? Have they told that's what they want to do?"

"Well, no…" _It's because that's what's going to happen._ "A lot of things just point to it happening. The Piplup that Dawn found, I think it belongs to Professor Rowan. I also think he will end up gifting it to Dawn in response to their new friendship, then she'll have a way to attempt to become a Top Coordinator, and you said yourself that Lucas would quietly follow Dawn to the ends of the earth and back."

"I see…" she sat there in silence.

"Hey, as your daughter would say, no need to worry."

"It's when she says that, that I worry the most."

"I know that I've only met them today, but I was thinking of hopefully tagging along with Dawn and Lucas."

"Well… this is a lot to take in, but… If they want to go across the region and would like to go with you… I should give you my phone number in case anything happens."

"Oh, yeah! I have a Poké Gear so I can call you anywhere."

So the two of us exchanged numbers before she went to bed and I slept on the couch, with my new friend in my arms. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.


	9. Entry 9 - The Grand Adventure

_?_

 _A door…_

 _Behind it, a box…_

 _Through the door…_

 _Locked, behind me…_

 _Locked, in front…_

 _Not locked…_

 _Stuck…_

 _"Force it open…"_

 _Which one…?_

 _"Your choice…"_

 _How…?_

 _…_

 _…_

 _…_

22/06/2007 – 07:30 AM

I came to consciousness, _jeez, when did it get so bright?_ Elaine and I were in the same position we were when we went to sleep. I lifted my top arm, which seemed to wake her up.

"Morning, Elaine."

"Vuha, Ch- Jack."

 _I am so glad this isn't a dream._

09:00 AM

"We ready to go?" I asked the twins.

"I am," Lucas replied, "but Dawn's still in the bathroom."

"Hold on!" She shouted, "I'm brushing my hair- Piplup, stop! I'll be there in a second." It sounded like she would take a while.

I decided to use this wealth of time to initiate conversation, "Hey, Lucas?"

"Yes?" he replied.

I asked, "Have you ever met Professor Rowan?"

"I just did yesterday."

"Oh, yeah I meant before that."

"Um… I don't think so?"

"What's he like?"

"He's pretty stern looking," Lucas described, "like when he talked to Barry and me, it felt like I was in trouble and talking to the principal."

"But he's nice, yeah?"

"I… think so, yeah."

 _In trouble with the principle, huh?_ "I made a song a few years ago about a principal."

"You make music?"

"Well, it's something I do for fun."

"Could you show me that principal song?"

"Uh… I don't have the backing music with me so I can't do the whole thing."

"That's fine, you could sing without music, right?"

"I could, but…"

"You don't want to?"

"Not really."

"Oh… That's okay." He seemed really down about that.

I had one point sung what's colloquially known as 'The Bin Song,' where I play the role of an evil principal who is stealing a rubbish bin, in front of kids at my old Primary School. For the rest of the week, I was pestered to sing it again. _Why did I even mention it?_

We had to wait for Dawn for another ten minutes.

09:40 AM

What happens when you walk through tall grass? You encounter a Pokémon. While we were walking to Sandgem, I heard some rustling grass and then I felt a knock on my back, I almost fell face first into the glades but Lucas managed to break my fall.

"What the hell!?" I exclaimed.

"Are you okay?" I heard Lucas ask.

"That hurt, but I'll be fine. What the heck was that?" I turned around to see a large brown wombat of sorts with large front teeth glaring at me. A Bidoof. "Bastard…" I muttered. F _irst wild Pokémon encounter, okay. Should be some easy experience. Keyword being 'should.'_ I unclipped Elaine's Poké Ball from the bottom of my bag, enlarged it by pressing the button in the centre and threw it up in the air. "Elaine! Confusion!"

The ball popped open and Elaine lept out in the form of a white light, before materialising into her physical form. She landed in the grass with near no sound of impact. "Vu!" After landing she thrust her arms towards the growling Bidoof. "Vu… Wah!" Her white arms vibrated intensely, then the Bidoof vibrated just as so.

The Bidoof grimaced and shook their head, "Bwehf!" before dashing towards Elaine. "Bwf, Bwf, Bwf."

"Elaine, dodge sideways!" I called.

Elaine turned to face me, then turned back to the charging rodent. She sidestepped to the right, only for the Bidoof to Tackle her in the shoulder, "Vah!" forcefully turning her body.

 _Dammit._ "Confusion again!"

The Bidoof charged in my direction before coming to a skidding halt and began to charge back at Elaine.

Elaine, standing with her left side facing the buck tooth, raised her left arm. It vibrated with an invisible energy as the eyes beneath her green hair began to glow a hot pink. "Vu… Wah!"

The dashing Bidoof, continued its charge with sudden feverishness, before it tripped over its front foot, "Bwoof!" passed by Elaine and skidded across the ground to a sudden stop.

"You won!" Dawn shouted.

"That was amazing," Lucas commented.

Elaine turned to see the Bidoof slowly getting up and limping slowly away. She turned to me, "Jack!" ran up to me and punched the air. "Vivah!"

"Elaine, you're awesome. First battle and it's a two hit K.O." I said as I picked her up and placed her on my backpack, she stood up to just over my head.

 _She wasn't able to dodge that tackle… maybe there's no dodging every attack like the anime? I'd have to test battles out a bit more._

"Excuse me?" A sudden voice called. I turned around to see a man a couple years older than me, he was wearing an apron with _"Sandgem Poké Mart"_ inscribed on it. "I couldn't help but notice that fight with that wild Bidoof, would you like a free Potion to heal your Pokémon's wounds?"

 _Oh, the clerk with the free potion!_

"Wow, free stuff!" Dawn, shouted, "You're so lucky Jack."

I replied, "I'm pretty sure this is just an advertising campaign, it's nothing special." _Wait, crap. That was rude._

"Yes, we're running a special campaign, and as a part of that we're giving out free potions." _At least he doesn't seem offended._ "Each of you gets a free commemorative Potion."

"All of us?" Dawn echoed.

"You're very kind sir," Lucas commented.

The clerk handed us each a bluish-purple spray bottle with light grey bubbled shape at the top. It was a design that seemed to target children.

"Thank you very much!" Lucas said as he received a Potion.

As the clerk gave me one, I said, "Thanks."

"Awesome!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Be sure to visit the Sandgem Town Poké Mart for all your Pokémon and traveling needs!" He suggested before walking off ahead of us, presumably back the way he came.

 _Traveling needs?_ He separated _that from Pokémon needs, so does that include camping equipment and food?_

09:55 AM

We had reached Sandgem Town, the first building to our left when we entered was signed as being _"Rowan Laboratory."_ It had a long road leading up to it, the building seemed to have a large windmill providing it with its energy.

"There it is!" Dawn shouted when we saw it.

"You all ready?" I asked the two of them.

Dawn responded, with an excited "Heck, yeah!" The Piplup in her arms chirped, echoing the young girl that was holding him.

We were about to knock on the front door before it suddenly opened and a blonde haired kid ran into Lucas. "What the…" Barry exclaimed, "Oh it's you guys."

Lucas had his hands over his nose, "Ow… could you please watch where you're going?"

"You were the one who ran into me!" Barry retorted.

"Hey bro, you okay?" Dawn asked.

"I'll be fine, I was just surprised," Lucas replied after checking that his nose wasn't bleeding.

I asked the bundle of violently clumsy energy, "You met with Rowan, right?"

"Yeah, I did." He answered. "That old guy… He's not scary so much as he is totally out there!"

"Isn't that a bit rude to say?" Dawn chided.

"Aww, it doesn't matter." Barry countered. "I'm out of here. See you later!" Instead of running towards Twinleaf, he ran deeper into town.

All of us sighed in unison.

We entered the building, inside was a room with a high roof with the floor and walls lined with clean metal panels, there were people in lab coats standing over desks which were covered with computers and research papers. There were dome-like structures of complex machinery which served no visible purpose.

We were greeted by an older man, perhaps in his late sixties. He had white hair and sideburns that extended to connect with his moustache. His square face was hard and stern, it gave off the impression that he is a person you should not mess around with. I could see why Lucas likened him to a school principal.

"Well, well, look who's here." The man spoke with a harsh yet controlled gravel. "Lucas, was it? I see you have brought some friends. My name is Rowan, but people call me the Pokémon Professor. And you are?"

"H-hi!" Dawn suddenly shouted, "It's a pleasure to meet you! I-I'm Dawn, Lucas's sister!" _There's no need to worry, Dawn._

"I see," he turned to look at me, "and you young man?"

I replied "I'm Jack. Jack Harvey. I'm from Dochaku." _Might as well stick with that story, since it's not entirely false. I'm from a Dochaku in a parallel universe._

"Well, that's quite a long way you've traveled." The professor commented, "Now tell me, what brings the three of you here."

I explained, "We were at the Lake yesterday afternoon, and Dawn found the Piplup she's holding."

"Go on?"

"I was wondering if it belonged to you, perhaps?"

"It's likely that it is." Rowan walked up to Dawn and the Piplup, "Soon after I gifted Lucas and Barry their Turtwig and Chimchar respectively, I noticed that the Poké Ball holding Piplup was empty."

Dawn asked, "So it's yours, sir?"

"Hold on a moment." He interrupted. He stared at the duo for a moment. "Tell me, young lady, what do you think of this Piplup?"

"Huh?" She blinked, "I uh… He's a bit of a troublemaker."

The Piplup turned to Dawn, his head was trembling and whatever brow it had turned sharp.

"Don't look at me like that, you were the one who attacked me when I found you."

The Pokémon turned their head away upwards as if to say that he was better than her.

"Now that's just rude!"

The Piplup didn't move and simply just chirped.

"Ehem." Rowan interrupted the two bickerers. "It is true that this Piplup belongs to this laboratory. Yet, I believe that the two of you meeting yesterday was no coincidence." He walked to a nearby desk and retrieved a Poké Ball from it. "I think it would be best if that Piplup were to be yours."

"What?! Really?!" Dawn yelled.

"Certainly. Just seeing you together shows how close the two of you have grown."

"But," Lucas questioned, "weren't they just arguing?"

"Yes, indeed. However," Rowan countered, "if Piplup truly disliked your sister, he would have run away from her."

"Huh, I guess you're right." Dawn figured.

"I imagine as siblings of close age," Rowan continued, "you and your sister bicker often, yet you still care for each other, yes?"

"Well…" Lucas muttered, "I guess that's true…"

"It is clear to me that such a relationship has been made between Dawn and Piplup, and me taking him back now would be a tragedy."

"So I get to keep Piplup?!"

"Of course. He is yours to keep." He announced as he handed Dawn the Poké Ball he took from his briefcase.

"I can't believe it… my first Pokémon!"

Dawn's Piplup puffed out its chest in a show of pride.

"Thank you so much, Professor Rowan!"

"You are most welcome." Rowan's moustache covering his lips curved upwards, I think he was smiling.

"I guess that makes us officially partners, Piplup!"

He chirped with excitement.

"On the topic of first Pokémon," Rowan turned to Dawn's brother, "Lucas? Let's have a look at your Turtwig."

"Oh, of course." Lucas grabbed his Poké Ball clasped to his belt, and threw it up. "Come on out." The Ball popped opened and summoned Lucas's Turtwig which materialised without much vigour and just stood there. That was until it eventually walked up to Lucas and looked up at him, to which the kid responded by picking his Pokémon up.

"Hm. Entrusting you with that Turtwig was no mistake, it seems." Rowan stated, "When I first saw you and your friend about to step into the tall grass without Pokémon, I was shocked. I was astounded by these foolhardy children. But now, you've astounded me in an entirely different way. Already, there is a bond growing between you and that Pokémon. I feel privileged to have met you. I'm sure Turtwig feels the same way about you. That's why I'll ask you to cherish that Turtwig of yours. And for you, Dawn, to cherish your Piplup."

"We will, Professor!" Lucas responded.

"No need to worry!"

"I am glad to hear that." The Professor turned to me. "Jack was it? Is there anything else you wish to discuss?"

"Uh…" _Start these kids' adventures._ "I don't really have anything else, what about you?"

"Hm? Oh yes, there is something," he exclaimed before going over to his desk to retrieve two red devices I recognised to be Pokédexes and a pink device that looked to be the same shape. "If I may ask, now that you have received your first Pokémon, what are your plans?"

Dawn responded immediately, "I'm going to be a Top Coordinator!"

"I see, and you Lucas?"

"Uh… I don't know… I guess I'll go with Dawn to cheer her on?"

"And-"

I interrupted. "Oh, I already have a Pokédex, you don't have to worry."

"I see. Lucas, Dawn? If I may ask, there is something I would like you two to do for me."

"Sure," Lucas affirmed, "what is it?"

"First of all, I want to know exactly what kinds of Pokémon live in the Sinnoh region. To do so, it is necessary to collect data using the Pokédex. This is what I wish to ask of you. I want to entrust you two with these Pokédexes. Will you use it to record data on all the Pokémon in Sinnoh for me?"

The twins were silent for a while. Until Lucas broke the silence by asking, "You want us to do something that big for you?"

Dawn continued, "That seems like a lot of work. I mean, all the Pokémon in Sinnoh?"

"This is entirely your choice, and you are free to do so at a pace that suits you. I only ask that you register the Pokémon you come across in your adventures. Your friend Barry is doing the same thing while taking on the Gym Challenge."

"Barry is?" Dawn echoed.

The two new trainers stared at their devices. Lucas held a red one while Dawn held a pink.

"I'll do it!" Lucas announced.

"Me too!"

"Hm! Good answers!"

"Those Pokédexes are very high-tech devices. They will automatically record data on every kind of Pokémon you encounter. Dawn, Lucas, I ask that you go everywhere and meet every kind of Pokémon in this region!"

I commented, "I'll be sure to keep an eye on them, that they're taking out their Pokédex at every opportunity." I had considered showing the professor my completely filled Pokédex, but I decided against it as I wanted these kids to fulfill their destiny so to speak. Showing Rowan my complete dex would have invalidated their adventure, and they absolutely needed to explore Sinnoh.

"When you walked up Route 201 with your Pokémon," Rowan continued to speak to the Diamonds, "what did you feel?"

"It was amazing!" Dawn exclaimed.

Then Lucas said, "I felt like I could do anything I wanted."

"I've lived for sixty long years. Even now, I get a thrill when I'm with a Pokémon. Now you should know there are countless Pokémon in this world. This means there are just as many thrills waiting for you out there! Now go! Your grand adventure begins right now!"

 _Did you have to say it with that much grandeur?_


	10. Entry 10 - Shopping and Stuff

10:15 AM

The three of us were just about to leave the lab through the outside gate when we heard Professor Rowan running towards us.

"Wait!" he beckoned, "I have something good here. You should take this as well." He handed us a flat plastic case with a compact disk inside it. It had a white sticky tape label on it that was beginning to fall off, it read _"TM27"_

Dawn took the case and asked, "What is it?"

"That is a Technical Machine. That one contains the move Return." Rowan explained through his panting breath.

"Woah," I exclaimed, _Thank you Platinum!_ "That's a really powerful Normal Type Physical move."

"Using a Technical Machine, or TM for short teaches a move instantly to a Pokémon. You can use a TM as many times as you want without any repercussions."

"What?!" I yelled, "It has infinite uses?!" _Thank you Gen V_ "Just… wow! Thank you so much, professor!"

"Of course." Rowan replied, "The move Return gains power the more friendly your Pokémon is with you. It's up to you, of course, if you want to use that TM or not."

"Thanks, Professor!" Dawn said.

Lucas followed with a "Thank you, sir."

"I'll send you off with the wish that your journey will be fun." Then he turned around and left.

Dawn turned to the two of us, "Alright guys," she punched a fist into the air, "let's do what the professor said and start our adventure!"

"Adventure?" Lucas echoed, "Where are we going?"

"Jubilife city, of course, that's where the next Pokémon Contest is. Piplup and I are gonna make our debut and win the Jubilife Ribbon."

"Um… sure. I guess I'll come with you and cheer you on?"

"Of course, how could I go anywhere without my kid brother."

"Only by fifteen minutes…"

"I'm still older than you."

"I don't think that matters."

"Hey, kids?" I intervene, "Before just deciding to just go on an adventure across the whole region, you should probably talk to your mother."

"Oh, yeah… oops."

"We should probably do that," Lucas suggested.

"Yeah, while you do that, I'm gonna go to the Poké Mart to buy some stuff. Meet me there once you're done."

"How come you want to meet us there?" Dawn asked.

I replied. "So we can go to Jubilife together."

"You want to come with us, sir?" Lucas questioned.

"Yeah. Oh and, please don't call me 'sir.'"

"Oh, sorry Jack."

"It's alright, see you in a moment." I turned and headed west of town.

10:20 AM

 _There it is._ Luckily the buildings had the same design as the games, the Pokémon Centres had orange roofs and Poké Mart had blue roofs, at least in Sandgem. I took my first moments in the store exploring the aisles. It was a lot bigger than in the games. There was camping equipment like tents and sleeping bags, long life food for both people and Pokémon, fishing rods, multitools, clothes, collapsible furniture, cooking equipment, water bottles, iodine, if you think you needed it, it was here somewhere.

Glancing over the counter, there were healing items for Pokémon like Potions and Antidotes, Poké Balls, Escape Ropes, all items you could buy in the games. There was a guy and a girl around my age heading it, they were both wearing a green uniform with a red apron.

Next to the counter was a range of clothing marked as _"Second Hand."_ Immediately an article of clothing caught my eye. _You've got to be kidding me._ There was a snow jacket with a blue, green and grey colour scheme. It was five hundred Pokédollars. It was the same one that I had at home. I bought it immediately. I spent ten thousand Pokédollars on clothes, I finally had spare sets of socks and jocks, and shoes that weren't falling apart at the seams. Unfortunately, they didn't have a black beanie, so I'd have to make do with the red hat that I was given.

I went to the camping equipment section and bought a tent, a sleeping bag, a foldable chair, two 1L drink bottles and outdoor cooking equipment, which included a couple knives which I would have to be careful with, luckily they came with sheaths. I also bought some cutlery and plates, and some bowls intended for Pokémon. That all cost around twenty-five thousand Pokédollars.

With the remaining fifteen thousand, I decided to invest in some food. _Oh… this is going to be a pain._ I had little experience in cooking, and I was a very picky eater, much like Dawn. _Well, I should figure out some way to make porridge, that's just oats and water, right? Yeah, and a bit of salt like Mum does, add some sultanas and then we're good. Wait, no, milk… going to need some powdered milk. Wait, how am I going to source water? I'm going to need some Iodine solution or I'll have to boil all the water we drink. And to boil it I need fire, and none of us have a fire Pokémon so I'll need matches and… do I have enough money for this?_

Short answer; Yes, barely. By the time I had purchased matches, iodine to purify the water we salvage, and food for a couple weeks, with enough variety to not kill my taste buds, I was flat out broke, other than the dollar fifty of Australian currency I had from home, which I bet I couldn't exchange for more Pokédollars if I tried.

11:00 AM

That shopping was stressful, but I was able to manage to get a decent haul of travel foods. As I was purchasing some long-life cheeses, I realised that I somehow knew more about cooking than I did before. _As I walked out of the Pokémart I thought, is that part of the "Survival Training" perk? Learning to prepare food is important in surviving, right?_

I couldn't see the twins anywhere nearby, so I decided to let Elaine out of her Pokéball for some company. "Hey, Elaine. How're you going?" I said as crouched down to her level.

"Vu…" she exclaimed as she rubbed her shoulder.

"Oh, right. That Bidoof knocked you right there, didn't it?"

"Vm." She nodded.

"Well, the Pokémon Centre's just over there, do want to get it fixed up?" I asked as I pointed to a nearby building with an orange roof.

Elaine tilted her head, looking as if she were pondering something. Then she gave a deliberate nod.

"Alright then." I picked up Elaine by her waist and carried her like you would a toddler to the Centre.

As I walked to the counter, a pink-haired nurse gave the spiel identical to the games.

"Good morning." Her voice was identical to the caring tones of Nurse Joy in the anime. Although, that's likely because she was a Nurse Joy. "Welcome to the Pokémon Center. We restore your tired Pokémon to full health. Would you like to rest your Pokémon?"

Behind the counter was a large machine with six concave dome-shaped slots to put Pokéballs into. _Oh, thank god, instant healing. Well, I guess "god" in this case would be the elven guy. I really should have gotten his name._

"Hi, my Ralts just needs a quick shoulder fix," I explained as I returned Elaine to her Pokéball.

"OK, I'll take your Pokémon for a few seconds."

When the nurse placed Elaine's Pokéball in one of the slots, the machine began to whirr softly as lights shone from each slot, illuminating Elaine's Pokéball like a lightbulb. This continued for about ten seconds before the machine played an all too recognisable jingle.

"Thank you for waiting. We've restored your Pokémon to full health. We hope to see you again!"

When I sat against the outside wall of the Pokémart, I let out Elaine again.

"Hello, your shoulder all better?"

After rubbing her shoulder for a moment, she slowly nodded.

"You okay? you seem unsure about something."

"Vmm…" She turned around and pointed to the orange-roofed building, "Vuh," before turning back to me and pointing at her healed shoulder "Vuha?" before tilting her head.

"You don't know why you're all healed up?"

"Vu." She nodded.

"I… actually don't know how it works honestly. Heh… All I know is that the centre has a machine that fully heals Pokémon from damage inflicted in battle."

"Vmm…" She stared at the building. Then all of a sudden she came up to me and pulled my arm in the direction of the building.

"Woah, okay? You want me to ask the nurse?"

"Vah!"

Essentially from what I gathered, a drug is injected into the data of the Pokéball, which accelerates a Pokémon's natural healing ability while it is active, like how humans heal paper cuts. The only reason it's not a permanent feature of Pokéballs to allow you to heal any Pokémon by putting it in its Pokéball is that overexposure of the "drug simulation," as the nurse put it, is because it can knock the Pokémon unconscious.

 _I guess that means that Pokémon can still die from natural causes like aging then?_ I thought, then I thought even more darkly, _I hope I don't have to go through that._

"Hey, Elaine?"

"Vu?"

"Is there anything else you want to do? Dawn and Lucas probably won't come back for at least forty-five minutes."

"Vm…" She shrugged.

"No idea, then." I figured as I sat back down against the outside of the Pokémart. "I guess we could listen to some music?" I suggested as I grabbed my Pokégear. Then as if on cue the device began to ring. Elaine perked up like a dog that noticed a person walking by. "It's Johanna," I said as I opened the device and held it up to my ear. _Wait do you hold it to your ear like a phone? … Roll with it._ "Hello, this is Jack."

"Hi, Jack!" The Pokégear blared piercingly into my ear.

 _Jeez, that was loud, ow._ I took the gear away from my ear and held it as you would normally.

"You were right about my kids, their packing their things right now," Johanna explained.

"Told you so."

"I just wanted to call to figure out a few things logistically, since said you're going with them right?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

Johanna explained that because Dawn is a picky eater I'd have to find ways of getting food she would eat. Luckily, everything I bought seemed to be okay. The kids were going to carry their own equipment, and apparently, they had a parcel to give to Barry if they ever ran into him. At one point, Lucas told me over his mum's phone that he got a new pair of running shoes that won't blister his feet. Dawn and Johanna argued about the number of clothes that she could take.

"Dawn you would barely be able to fit all those clothes into a suitcase."

"But, mom. I need them for Pokémon Contests."

"You only need just one."

"Eugh, fine…"

Johanna ended the call by asking me, "take care of my children for me."

"Will do Ms. Pearl."

"How come you-"

"I asked Dawn."

"Oh, okay. They'll be there in about an hour." Silence.

"Well," I turned to Elaine, "I guess we've still got an hour to burn." But then I realised she had fallen asleep leaning against my thigh. I petted her head.

12:10 PM

Finally, we were together and leaving Sandgem town via Route 202. We were walking at a brisk pace side by side along the path, I was cradling a sleeping Elaine while Dawn was jealous of my new clothes.

"How come you get to take extra clothes and I can't even take one dress?" Dawn complained, pointing at my new snow jacket.

"Because," I replied, "I know I can carry it, and it's designed to be useful for adventuring."

"That's not fair."

"So is life."

Dawn pouted.

"Speaking of clothes, how are your new shoes, Lucas?"

"They're great," He replied, "I feel like I'm walking on air. Now I can run as fast as Barry without hurting my-"

Suddenly, Dawn stopped. "Hey look at that!" She was pointing at a chocolate-brown rabbit standing on its hind legs as if it were bipedal. It had light yellow balls of fur at the ends of its ears. "It's a Buneary!"

"Don't forget to register it on your Pokédex," I mentioned.

"Lucas, you do that while I try to catch it!" Dawn commanded. "Go, Piplup!"

As Dawn fought with the Pokémon, Lucas read the information on the Pokédex. "Buneary, female, level seven. Normal type, number four hundred and twenty-seven. The Rabbit Pokémon. One foot, four inches, and just over twelve pounds."

 _Imperial system? That's weird, my Pokédex uses the metric system._

"Buneary slams foes by sharply uncoiling its rolled ears. It stings enough to make a grown-up cry in pain and they can be forcefully extended to shatter even a large boulder. Its ears are always rolled up except when it senses danger, it perks up its ears. On cold nights, Buneary sleeps with its head tucked into its fur. You can also tell how it feels by the way it rolls its ears. When it's scared, both ears are rolled up. By extending its rolled-up ears and striking the ground, it can bound so high it surprises itself. Its arms and legs are weak, compared to its ears. The reason it keeps one ear rolled up is so it can launch a swift counterattack if it's attacked by an enemy. Capture is required for more information on this Pokemon."

But by the time Lucas had finished, the Buneary had already run away, and Dawn's Piplup was sulking.

After a quick pep talk, involving the words "No need to worry," we continued on the path to encounter a Burmy, a bagworm creature covered in leaves as a protective shell.

Wash, rinse and repeat. Only this time Burmy ran away because Dawn forgot to throw a Pokéball at it before it disappeared.

 _Well, this is going exactly like the anime. Wait… exactly likely like the anime, does that mean-_

"Hey, what's over there?" Lucas pointed at a rustling bush.

"Is it another Pokémon?" Dawn asked.

It was, the Pokémon that staggered out of the bush seemed to be worn from combat. Its cheeks were red and its tail was in the shape of a thick lightning bolt and was a bright yellow.

 _Oh, you have got to be f***ing kidding me!_ "It's a Pikachu!"


	11. Entry 11 - Countdown

12:20 PM

"An electric type might be a challenge for a water type like Piplup," Dawn pondered, "but let's give it a shot!"

Dawn's Piplup moved into position.

Dawn began, "Okay, use-"

"Wait, Dawn, don't fight it!" I interrupted, "that Pikachu already belongs to someone."

"How do you know?" she asked.

However, I didn't answer, I quickly approached the Pikachu but then it responded by standing on all fours and discharging sparks from its cheeks.

"Pi…" it threatened.

"Hey, it's okay," I reassured, "I'm not going to hurt you. You belong to Ash Ketchum, right?"

"Pikapi?!" The electricity ceased as its ears perked up excitedly.

"Who's Ash Ketchum?" Lucas asked.

"Uh… he's… um," _the main character of your reality, at least in it's animated format. Crap, how do I know him? I'm probably going to meet him for the first time, so how would I know him in this world? Wait, he's somewhat famous, right? He was a finalist in a few conferences._ "A very good Pokémon Trainer, he was in the finals of the… Ever Grande Conference I think it was called, in Hoenn. He always has his Pikachu outside of its Pokéball."

"Then how come it's on its own?" Dawn questioned.

"That would be because of us!" A new, egocentric voice exclaimed.

 _Oh… f***!_

"Listen is that a voice I hear?" the voice chanted, it belonged to a woman with bright magenta hair that formed a long single curl that shot out impossibly from the side of her head.

"It's speaking to me loud and clear!" a second deeper and flamboyant voice exclaimed. It came from a man with sky blue hair that reached his shoulders. Both of them wore a matching white uniform with a large red R printed on the front.

"On the wind," the woman spoke,

"Past the stars," said the man,

"In your ear!" A third character shouted with a gravelly voice, it was a beige, bipedal, feline creature with a large oval head and a golden coin implanted into its forehead.

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!" she said.

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place!" he said.

"A rose by any other name is just as sweet!" said the girl.

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!" said the guy.

The woman was "Jessie!"

The man was "James!"

Then the cat Pokémon said, "Meowth, dat's a name."

"Putting the do-gooders in their place," said Jessie.

"We're Team Rocket," said James

Then in unison, they announced, "In your face!"

Finally, they seemed to finish their bizarre performance with a unified flamboyant and egocentric pose.

"Pipi~kachu!" the electric Pokémon growled.

"That Meowth can talk!?" The twins reeled in shock, Lucas simultaneously scanning it with his Pokédex.

"And quite eloquently too," he responded, proudly.

 _I have to deal with these f***ers! Elf guy, you're just a massive prick._ Team Rocket, were the recurring antagonists of the Pokémon anime. Every episode they would hatch a scheme to capture or steal Pokémon, usually Pikachu, in order to give them to their crime syndicate based in the Kanto region. They would almost always fail, but they're like a mosquito that you couldn't get rid of no matter what you tried.

"What's the deal with you guys?" Dawn asked innocently, "I've never heard of Team Rocket before."

"They're a criminal syndicate based in Kanto," I explained, while I felt Elaine wake up in my arms, "but these guys tenacious criminals whose primary target is this Pikachu."

"Criminals?!" Lucas gasped.

"Are you our fanboy or something?" Jessie snarked. "I'm flattered by your wealth of knowledge, but you know way too much for your own good."

"And that Pikachu is coming with us, as it should!" James stated.

"You can talk the talk, but you ain't walkin' the walk." Meowth threatened.

"Go, Seviper!" Jessie threw a Pokéball from which a large black serpent came into existence. It was as big as a person, it had blood red fangs and eyes that were just as red. Its head was covered in gold and purple markings. It hissed violently as it landed in front of us.

 _Crap, have to do something, overwhelm them quickly._ "Elaine, Confusion!" I called, "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt! Dawn! Lucas! Help!"

Elaine vibrated holding a quivering arm towards the large snake Pokémon, while Pikachu enveloped itself in yellow energy which shot a large zigzagging ray at the oncoming serpent.

The Confusion managed to keep the Seviper still until Pikachu's Thunderbolt coated it causing it to writhe in pain.

Lucas threw a Pokéball, "Turtwig, use Tackle!"

Dawn followed, "Piplup, use Pound!"

The summoned Turtwig rushed towards the reeling serpent along with Piplup as it rammed itself right into the throat of Seviper, Piplup followed by swinging its flipper around itself and driving it into the beast's cheek, which sent it flying back to its trainer. It landed, collapsed right at Jessie's feet.

"No fair!" Jessie exclaimed.

"A four on one confrontation is hardly an equal battle!" James followed. "Go, Cacnea," he threw a Pokéball oh his own summoning a circular green creature that had multiple spikes over its body, it was reminiscent of a small and squat cactus. But instead of facing us, the Cacnea turned around to instead affectionately hug its trainer around the waist.

"Nehaaah!" James yelped in pain as the cactus's arms stabbed him through his uniform. "You're only making it more unequal!"

 _Now's our chance!_ "Pikachu, Thunderbolt again."

With Team Rocket all grouped up together, the Thunderbolt hit all five of them present. The sounds of intense crackling ceased with an explosion, sending dirt, bushes, Pokémon, and people flying. Team Rocket, in particular, blasted off so far and so high that we could only see a twinkle in the sky, all the while they screamed, "We're blasting off again!"

We stood in silence for a while, just taking in the absurdity of it all. Eventually, the silence was broken by Pikachu who began to say syllables of its own name in some sort of structured sentence that only he could understand.

"Pikapi ka chukapichu ka?" he seemed to ask. "Pikaka ka Pikapi chu pika pichu chu pika, kapi ka chukapichu ka?"

 _I'm starting to regret not taking Pokéglot as a perk._ Pokéglot was a perk I could have chose when filling out the sheet for the elven man. It would have allowed me to understand and comprehend what Pokémon were attempting to communicate as if they were speaking English. However, despite that, I recognised that the phrase _"Pikapi"_ was what Pikachu called Ash, his trainer. It derived from Ash's name in the original Japanese version of the animated series. _I'm guessing he's asking where Ash is._

"If you're wondering where Ash, he's probably looking for you right now." I turned to the twins, "We need to get to Professor Rowan's lab as soon as possible."

"Hold on, what's going on?" Dawn asserted.

"Are those Team Rocket guys going to be okay?" Lucas asked.

"I'll explain while we run." I then took out Elaine's Pokéball and returned her to it, so that we could move quicker. I stood up and ran in the direction we came. "Come on!"

"Wait, hold on!" Dawn shouted. I could then hear a sigh escape her mouth as Pokéballs emitted sounds of returning.

"Jack did…" Lucas hesitated, "did we just kill those people?"

"Not likely," I replied. "You noticed they said 'blasting off again' right?"

"Yeah?"

"Like I said before, they're tenacious. Sending them into orbit isn't going to stop them from coming back."

"They're coming back?!" Dawn echoed. "What are we going to do."

"We need to get this Pikachu to his Trainer. He's probably at Professor Rowan's trying to look for him."

"But, he looks exhausted, we should get him to a Pokémon Center!" she contended.

"Dawn! We can't do that! Every second that Pikachu is away from Ash Ketchum, the more danger we're all in! Now just run!" I commanded, a lot harsher than I intended.

Glancing down at Pikachu, he was struggling to keep up, even while running on all fours. The pursuit from Team Rocket must have put more pressure on him than I thought.

 _I should carry him, he's getting tired. Wait, does he trust me enough to let me do that? What if he shocks me? Not only will that hurt like a b**** but it'd slow us down as well._

 _F***, what do I do?_

 _Ask him? But I don't know what's yes, no or just an exhalation of breath._

 _Just, keep running for now. If it gets too bad he'll be too weak to shock anyone and we can carry him safely._

 _But what if Team Rocket shows up again? We'll have no one to fight them. The rest of us only have level five Pokémon._

 _S*** we have to carry him. Maybe if I think of a nonverbal way he can communicate yes or no?_

I looked back at Pikachu, only for my stomach to drop even further than it already has. Dawn was leaning down to pick up Pikachu.

"Dawn!" I screamed, but too late.

She grabbed Pikachu round its waist and lifted him up.

Pikachu flinched in response to the sudden contact.

His red cheeks began to spark.

Then, he calmed down.

Pikachu climbed onto Dawn's shoulder and then began to pant deeply.

"What?!" Dawn shouted back.

"Sorry, it's okay. I… thought I saw something…"

"Are you okay Jack?" Lucas asked.

"Honestly, I'm… stressing out."


	12. Entry 12 - Reckless Bravery

12:45 PM

We were lucky. I wasn't sure if we would have been able to take on Team Rocket if they were going all out, and used all of their Pokémon at the same time. I mean, Pikachu definitely could have, but he wasn't at full strength at the time, and the rest of our Pokémon were at the highest, maybe level seven.

Once we all reached the lab and explained the situation to Rowan, he agreed to take care of Pikachu and tend to his injuries until Ash arrived. That being said, Ash also hadn't appeared yet, which didn't help reduce my stress.

In the anime, Dawn found Pikachu and took her to a Pokémon Centre north of Sandgem Town at the same time Ash met Rowan, so they ended up meeting halfway.

That was clearly not the case here.

I was sitting down clutching Elaine in an embrace in an attempt to calm down, and Elaine being able to sense the emotions of others, was of course concerned. She was rubbing my face which tickled a bit, due to her hands being so small.

"What are we going to do, Jack?" Lucas suddenly asked.

I looked up to see him sitting next to me, similarly consulting his Turtwig for comfort. "What do you mean?"

"Well… how do you even know that this Ash person is going to be here? There's no sign of him."

"The same reason I thought we should have taken Piplup here when Dawn found him. A Pokémon professor is the first person you ask about local Pokémon and anything odd relating to that. Since, you know, their work is about researching Pokémon."

"I guess that makes sense." Lucas stoked his hand along Turtwig's shell. "But how do you know that this Pikachu belongs to this Ash person?"

 _Because that's what happened in the anime._ "It was an educated guess. I saw the cuts and bruises that he had, and I thought that he must be a really strong Pokémon to take that kind of a beating. Ash Ketchum is the only Trainer with a really strong Pikachu that I could think of."

Luckily, when I wasn't too stressed, I was able to think of plausible reasons as to why I have the knowledge I really shouldn't fairly quickly. The Savant perk on the sheet the elven man gave me an enhanced mind, though a faster brain is something I'd have to get used to in order to properly use.

The Pikachu in question had their nose pressed against a window, waiting impatiently for his Trainer. After a while, he would jump off of the windowsill and then move to a different window. His energetic demeanor no doubt regained from the Professor's aides tending to his wounds earlier.

"Are you okay, Lucas?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I think so."

"You think so?"

"Well, that was the first time I ever met a criminal. I didn't know what was going to happen."

"Hey, I might be a bundle of anxiety sometimes, but I promised your mother that I would do my best to take care of the two of you, and I'm going to do my best to keep my word."

"Thank you, Jack."

"Thank you as well."

"Um, why are you thanking me?"

"Cause you helped me de-stress a bit."

"Oh, well… Glad I could help."

Then without warning, we heard a yell from one of the windows.

"Pikapi!" It was Pikachu, who had darted of a window sill and ran towards the front door.

Lucas and I glanced outside to see three figures approaching the lab.

"What's going on?" I heard Dawn ask from behind us as we stood at the window.

"Ash is here," I answered, and then moved to open the door for Pikachu, who bolted out towards the figure in the centre, a tan boy who looked to be in his early teens.

"Pikachu!" the boy called, before all of a sudden Pikachu was carried off of the ground by a large mechanical hand, and pulled out of sight into the treeline.

"No! Give back Pikachu!" He shouted. All too aware of what just happened.

"Ahahaha!" a shrill voice shouted.

"All we had to do is wait for the twerps to show up then Pikachu would come out of hiding," a suave voice explained.

"Now to show those twerpazoids our new motto!" exclaimed a gravelly voice.

"What are you talking about!?" The boy yelled.

The twins and I took our Pokémon and ran out check what the hell happened.

"Listen is that a twerp I hear?"

"He's shrieking to me, loud and clear."

"On the wind," Jessie appeared from the bushes.

"Past the stars," so did James.

"In your ear!" and Meowth.

"Bring chaos at a breakneck pace!"

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place!"

"A rose by any other name is just as sweet!"

"When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

A loud thud reverberated across the laboratory grounds as a six-armed mechanical figure followed Team Rocket out of the brush.

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Meowth, that's a name!"

They all swiftly climbed up the three-story mech and into the cockpit at the top of the bipedal monstrosity.

"Putting the do-gooders in their place,"

"We're Team Rocket,"

"And we're in your face!"

"Wobbuffet!" exclaimed a blue punching bag looking creature with a large mouth while they saluted.

"Mime, mi mime!" A small pink humanoid Pokémon with dark blue hair repeated the same actions as the Wobbuffet.

"Team Rocket?!" The three initial arrivers stated in unison, contempt burning under their voices.

After a quick closer look at the new strangers, I identified the three of them immediately. The boy was, in fact, Ash Ketchum, with permanent marks on his cheeks that sort of looked like backward 'z's. He was taller than Dawn or Lucas and he wore a red hat and a blue shirt. Behind him were two others. A man who looked to be the same age as me, maybe older, he had dark skin, brown spiky hair and eyes so thin you could barely see them. This was Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader in the Kanto region who specialised in Rock-Type Pokémon, and longtime traveling companion to Ash. The other was a girl with ginger hair tied into a short side-ponytail who was about as old as Ash. She was carrying a small blue, round rabbit Pokémon with no arms, and a large ball attached to the end of its thin zigzagging tail. She was Misty, another Kanto Gym Leader, this time of Cerulean City and who used Water-Type Pokémon.

 _Wait, why is Misty here? Isn't she supposed to still be in Kanto?_ In the anime, Misty left the main cast of characters when the show had a soft reboot when Ash went to the Hoenn region. From then on, she only appeared in an episode or two here or there.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash called, which turned my attention to the real threat in front of us, the giant machine holding Pikachu.

Held firm within the grasp of one of its six snake-like arms, Pikachu discharged, to no visible effect.

The trio of ne'er-do-wells merely laughed. "Insulation is paramount in protecting us from Pikachu's Poké power!" James explained.

"And nothing dat he can dish out ain't gonna dent our dynamic devil!" Meowth gloated.

"Then how about this?!" Ash reached for Pokéball clasped to his belt. "Starly, I choose you!" He threw a Pokéball which summoned a Starly of his own. "Use Wing Attack!" Ash's Starly dive-bombed the massive mech, aiming for the arm holding Pikachu, but its other five arms easily swatted Starly away. However, neither it nor Ash backed down. Starly continued to attempt to weave past all of the arms, dodging back out when things got too close for comfort and then trying again.

"Stupid bird," Jessie cursed, "go away and ruin someone else's day!"

"Lucas," I exclaimed, "get your Starly to do the same thing. One of them should be able to get through."

"Uhh… okay!" Lucas hesitated, then fiercely threw his Pokéball skyward. "Starly, save Pikachu with Quick Attack!"

As the second Starly entered the fray, there was a yelp from where Ash and his friends were.

"No Ash, wait!" Misty shouted as Ash had made a mad dash towards the mech.

One of the mech's arms shot out at Ash, but he jumped and dodged out of the way, with that jump he hit a tree trunk and jumped up even higher by pushing off of it. _Holy f***!_ It must have been almost a ten-metre jump in all. No human from home could have pulled a stunt like that. _Can… Can I do that?! I mean, I took Physical Fitness, "almost as strong as Captain America" and everything._ Ash grabbed onto the mechs top left arm, the one that was holding Pikachu.

"Hold on Pikachu, I'm coming!" He yelled as he tried to keep balance on the writhing arm.

"Hey guys," Meowth said, "we got a twerp stowaway!"

Jessie commanded, "then shake him off!"

The arm began to writhe even more wildly than before, it was like a skipping rope that couldn't decide if it wanted to go clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Somehow despite that, Ash managed to climb all the way to the hand of the machine and attempted to pry it open.

As Team Rocket's attention was mostly on Ash, one of the Starly managed to get a good hit on the arm holding Pikachu, which seemed to lock up as exposed wires fountained out of the impact zone.

"Bruteish bird-brains!" James exclaimed.

Meowth stated ominously, "I'll show you to mess wit our machine!" before suddenly, one of the arms penetrated the main body of the machine.

"Uh, Meowth? What did you do?" Jessie asked forebodingly.

Then there was an explosion as Team Rocket were sent to orbit.

"We're blasting off again!"

The explosion encompassed Ash and Pikachu, they were nowhere in sight. Even the Starly above couldn't see anything underneath the collapsing rubble.

"Ash!" Brock called.

"Are you okay?!" Misty asked the pile of broken machinery, panic-stricken.

All we could hear was a deafening quiet. It lasted for what seemed to be hours, and it was only drowned out by the pungent smell of smoke and gas.

Then to all of our relief, Ash emerged from the wreckage embracing Pikachu.


	13. Entry 13 - Extreme Meritocracy

01:30 PM

Ash's clothes were a wreck after the explosion. One of his sleeves tore open and there were holes everywhere. Even his hat had nearly ripped in two. Ash himself was bleeding from cuts he had all over his back. _Bleeding, in a children's show?_ Luckily, due to the combined powers of mothers being the best and the plot convenience of children's television, Ash's mum, Delia, had sent a package forward to Professor Rowan with a new change of clothes, new hat included, and Ash was able to make a full recovery in an hour after applying some bandages.

The whole lot of us, Ash, Misty, Brock, Dawn, Lucas, and I, were all having lunch at the Lab, and all of our Pokémon had various types of food designed for the dietary needs of each one of them. Along with Elaine, the long list of Pokémon included Dawn's Piplup, Lucas's Turtwig and Starly, Ash's Pikachu and Starly, and a purple monkey-like Pokémon with a large hand at the end of its tail called Aipom. Brock owned a small armless Pokémon that looked like a bonsai tree, a Bonsly. Misty had her aforementioned Azurill, but she also had a large starfish Pokémon with a red jewel encrusted into the centre of it which I recognised as a Staryu, and a yellow bipedal duck Pokémon whose arms seemed to always be grasping its head as if it had a pounding headache. What was most fearsome, however, was Misty's Gyarados. A six and a half long serpent that was as thick as a large tree, its squashed in face grimaced with a large gaping jaw that could fit a person whole. It was so large, Misty had to release it outside so as to not damage either the lab's equipment or the large Pokémon in question.

Throughout all of this, Lucas and Dawn analysed all the new Pokémon with their Pokédexes, under the pleased and watchful eye of Professor Rowan. I took the opportunity to introduce myself to the newly arrived trio of trainers.

"Uh…" suddenly, I broke into a cold sweat. Three of my childhood heroes were looking up at me, I didn't know what to say other than, "Hello. I-I'm Jack."

"Well, hi Jack!" Ash said enthusiastically, "I'm Ash, from Pallet Town, and this is Pikachu," he motioned to his partner which I was already well acquainted with.

"Ah, you don't need to introduce yourselves," I explained, "Ash Ketchum, a finalist in the Ever Grande Conference, and Brock and Misty, both the Gym Leaders of Pewter and Cerulean City respectively. Although right now your families are running them, I think."

"How do you know about that?" Misty asked in a slightly surprised tone.

"I know about all the Kanto-" _Wait, crap no. Gary challenged at least 10 gyms, some of them not shown._ "Sorry, a lot about the Gyms in Kanto, I uh…" _why do I know? Well, I fought them in the games but I haven't actually done it in this universe, so…_ "I thought about taking on the Gym challenge in Kanto and I did a lot of research. Never actually did it."

"Wow, you really know your stuff!" Ash exclaimed.

"Is there really that much information out there about us?" Brock asked, his cheeks reddening slightly.

"The Internet is an amazing resource," I announced, emulating a teacher by pointing my index finger upwards, "In fact, it's because I watched some of Ash's battles in the Ever Grande Conference that I recognised your Pikachu as yours when I found him."

"You're the one who brought Pikachu to the lab? Thank you so much for finding him!"

"Glad to help, Ash."

"I don't get it though…" Misty said, "Why would you think that Pikachu belonged to Ash, and why would you think that he would be in the Sinnoh region?"

"Hey, that's a good point," Brock affirmed, "And, it wouldn't be pretty hard to recognise a specific Pokémon as the same one you saw on TV."

"Um…" _crap, that is a good point. A really good point._ "Lucky guess? It was the first thing that popped into my mind, and when I said your name, Ash, Pikachu responded in a way that suggested he knew you." _Please don't look further into it._ "Maybe I'm secretly psychic?" I joked.

"Wait, really!?" Ash exclaimed.

Misty explained with an exacerbated tone, "He was making a joke, Ash."

"Well, I think we easily say that you already know a lot about us." Brock said, "How about you though? Where do you come from?"

"Dochaku," I answered.

"Dochaku, where's that?" Ash asked.

Brock explained to him that, "The Dochaku Region is an extremely large region that's further south than even Hoenn. It's on the other side of the world in the Southern Hemisphere. Over there, the seasons are reversed. During Christmas it's summer and when it's summer here it's winter there."

"Really? That sounds crazy."

"Yeah," I interrupted, "I've never had a White Christmas before, it was the perfect time to visit the beach."

"So then, how come you're all the way out here?" Misty asked.

"I'm…" _on a mission from God, or whatever the elf is,_ "on an adventure with Lucas and Dawn. I don't have a real goal in mind, yet." _I should probably think about that actually,_ "Maybe I'll take on the Sinnoh Gym Challenge?"

"You should!" Ash stated.

"Dawn's aiming to win the Grand Festival like her mother," I continued, " and Lucas is tagging along with his sister because he wants to be with her. I promised their mother to take care of them."

"So where are you guys headed next?" asked Brock.

"Jubilife City. There's a contest being held there soon and Dawn wants to go."

Brock turned to Ash, "If I remember correctly, that's on the way to Oreburgh City."

"I see," Ash said, then he turned swiftly towards me with his fist in the air, "Hey, I have an idea, what if we all travelled together?"

"I'm fine with that, but you'd have to ask the twins first."

"Sure, I'll go and ask them!" Ash, hastily left his seat and ran off behind me.

"Is it just me, or did Ash not notice that I called them twins?" I asked the remaining pair of Gym Leaders.

"What do you mean?" Misty asked.

"Well, Dawn and Lucas are twins."

"No, not that, about Ash not noticing what you said?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I was wondering why Ash didn't go "wait, they're twins," about it."

She and Brock stared at me, with incomprehensible expression.

"What?" I asked indignantly. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No," Brock assured, "it's just an… odd observation."

"I guess you could expect him to say something like that, though?" Misty commented. "You sure you haven't met him before?"

 _And that's my cue to leave the conversation._ "I don't know." I stood up and went to go play with Elaine. I swore I could hear Misty saying something along the lines of "he's a weird guy."

02:00 PM

As the six of us were about to leave the lab, the front door opened and a kid in his early teens stepped through. He had shoulder length purple hair, narrow eyes and a permanent scowl on his face.

Ash seemed to recognise him, as the moment he saw the new arrival he ran up to him. "Paul! I've got Pikachu back, now we can have our three on three battle!"

"I can see," he grunted. "Let's get this over with." He turned to the rest of us and asked, "where's Professor Rowan?"

"Yes?" The man called from behind us all.

"May we use your field as a battleground?"

"By all means."

"Thank you."

As Ash and Paul left the building, Dawn asked Misty "Wait, so, what's going on?"

Misty responded, "We met this guy when we were looking for Pikachu. He and Ash got into an argument and was challenged to a three on three battle."

"And he didn't have Pikachu, so he would have only had two Pokémon at the time, right?"

"Right, then Paul called Ash "pathetic" for only having two Pokémon and now here we are."

Brock offered to referee the fight as the other four of us watched the battle from the sidelines.

After the two trainers took their places about twenty-five metres from each other, roughly the same length as a tennis court, Paul explained the terms of the battle. "The battle will be a three on three battle with no substitutions. The first one to win two battles wins overall."

I decided it would be nice to let Elaine out to watch the fight, thinking that it could be a learning experience. "Hey, Elaine,"

"Vah, Chack!"

"Eh, close."

"J… Jack."

"That's it. We're about to watch a battle. Maybe we could pick up some tips and tricks?"

Brock raised his arms, "Battle, begin!"

Ash sent out his Starly while Paul also sent out a Starly. _Okay, seriously that's like four Starly so far own by important characters. Wait… Should I think of them as characters? That seems a bit rude. Hold on, the Starly are dodging each other's attacks!_ One of the bird Pokémon attempted to ram into the other with little success. The aerial dogfight continued as such, as each Starly bobbed and weaved, sometimes colliding, but most of the time they barely missed each other.

This continued until Paul shouted, "Aerial Ace!" The move was always guaranteed to hit its target despite any disadvantages in accuracy in the games, but in the show, there was always the possibility of the attack being dodged. Despite the possibility, however, the move connected with Ash's Starly and sent it hurtling to the ground, billowing dust upon impact.

Once the dirt had fallen back to the ground, Brock announced, "Starly is unable to battle, the winner is Paul!"

Both trainers returned their bird Pokémon to their Pokéballs. Ash said something that sounded consoling while Paul scowled heavily, apparently silent.

The next battle was between Ash's Aipom and Paul's Chimchar. Aipom flailed his fist-like tail at Chimchar who retaliated by spewing fire. The two monkey Pokémon displayed equally impressive feats of acrobatics as they dodged each other's attacks. The two were about to collide, Chimchar with a Flame Wheel and Aipom with a Focus Punch. Focus Punch instantly fails if the user gets hit with an attack, but it is also extremely powerful. It was a game of timing, could Aipom hit the speeding ball of flame before it connected with Ash's Pokémon. Only it was a game that Aipom wasn't going to play, as it jumped into the air and brought its fist of a tail downward, instantly knocking out Chimchar.

Paul and Ash returned their Pokémon, Ash celebratory over his victory and Paul, keeping the same scowl on his face as he previously did, called his Pokémon "pathetic."

"What did you call 'em that for?!" Ash shouted.

"That's none of your business!"

"That doesn't give you an excuse to be mean to your Pokémon!"

"Excuse me, but aren't we in the middle of a battle?" Paul threw a third Pokéball, "Elekid, standby for battle!" Out came a yellow bipedal Pokémon with black stripes and two ears that were in the shape of an American or Japanese electrical plug.

"Fine!" Ash turned to his partner Pokémon standing at his feet, "Pikachu, you ready?"

"Pika," he exclaimed in determined approval and leaped into the battlefield, its cheeks began to spark with electricity, "Pika pika!"

Overall, Pikachu was clearly the stronger Pokémon, it had the experience of multiple championships and fighting a criminal organisation almost daily. However, its move-set wasn't prepared for an electric type like itself, and Pikachu had already been through a lot earlier that day, the handicap may be have been enough to earn Elekid the victory.

Pikachu began the fight by throwing a Thunderbolt at Elekid, who took the bolt unfazed. In fact, it seemed to make Elekid stronger if anything.

I heard Lucas say to Misty that "Electric-type attacks like Thunderbolt aren't very effective against other Electric-type Pokémon like Elekid or Pikachu, right?"

"Yeah that's right, that's why it didn't do that much."

And me being the Smart-Alec that I am, had to chip in and counter that point. "But, since Pikachu is an electric type, he should get a STAB, or a same type attack bonus, meaning that it gets a one point five times multiplier. Adding that to the not very effective hit, Pikachu's attack should have only had a three-quarter multiplier. So unless that Elekid is strong enough to evolve but it or Paul hasn't decided to, I don't know why it was able to tank that attack." Then I realised that I couldn't remember what ability the species Elekid has. _Doesn't Savant give me a perfect memory? Maybe it's memory from the point the Jump started that's perfect?_

I grabbed my complete Pokédex and opened it to the entry on Elekid. It listed its ability as Static, which is the same ability that Pikachu. "Yeah, it's ability is Static and not anything like Volt Absorb, so that couldn't be the reason why attack didn't do much." I was about to put away the Pokédex before Elaine grabbed it from me and inspected it curiously, turning it over in her hands.

"Uh, Misty?" Lucas asked, "What was he talking about?"

"I have no idea."

I sighed, "Basically, that Thunderbolt still should have hurt pretty bad, and that Elekid is stronger than it looks." Though admittedly, I was going to have to double check the mechanics of Pokémon battles.

 _Hopefully, this world's internet will provide the answers once I find a public computer that has internet access._ The Sandgem Pokémon Centre's public PC was only connected to Pokémon Storage and Pokémon Transfer networks. _I really should have got that lap-_

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed Elaine had let go of my Pokédex and had let it drop towards the ground. I wasn't quick enough to grab it, but then as if time had slowed for my mind to do so, I knew how to cushion its fall. The Pokédex fell onto my foot, which managed to prevent any damage.

I turned to the Ralts in my arms, "What did you do that for – oh…" Elaine had fallen asleep again.

"Pikachu! Use Volt Tackle!" Ash shouted, and then his Pikachu began to charge towards Elekid, leaving a white blur behind him as he ran. Suddenly, Pikachu and his trail turned into a bright yellow comet headed straight for Paul's Pokémon.

"Elekid, Protect!"

Then there was a loud crash as if a bolt of lightning had come from the sky and hit the centre of the battlefield. Burnt dust filled the air, obscuring the field and the results of the attack and filling the nostrils and mouth of everyone nearby.

The dust settled and Elekid was enveloped in a green transparent dome. Underneath, it seemed unharmed. Pikachu however, looked like it had taken a beating.

"Wait, what happened?" Dawn exclaimed.

I explained that "Elekid used Protect to block the attack completely, but Pikachu's Volt Tackle deals damage to the user as well because the move is so strong." Which was true, but the damage only occurred in the games when the attack actually connected. _Maybe in this combat system in costs HP to use?_

Elekid and Pikachu continued to battle fiercely, Pikachu dodged and weaved around Elekids punches while Elekid was able to tank a lot of what it was dealt with. It was a fight between the slow but resilient versus the fragile yet quick. Elekid had trouble hitting Pikachu which whittled it down over time. Eventually, it culminated in a collision between Elekid's ThunderPunch and Pikachu's Iron Tail.

The two electric types eyed each other, both gasping for breath, standing shakily and bruised to high heaven. The air around them seemed to have heated after the exchange of blows. They were beyond exhausted. Elekid looked as if it leaned too far in one direction, it would fall instantly. The first to fall would be the loser.

The loser, however, was never decided, as in a blink and you'll miss it, both Pokémon had fallen face first into the dirt. Brock the match as a draw.

Ash ran to Pikachu and picked him up in his arms. "You did well, Pikachu," he said despondently. "We lost."

"Lost?!" Paul said indignantly as he withdrew his Elekid, "The battle was a tie."

"But, Pikachu was the one who hit the floor first," Ash explained, "so it might as well have been a loss."

"Your friend ruled it as a tie. So it's a tie!" Paul then grabbed a Pokéball from his belt and let out his Starly from it, only this time, the light that emanated from the Pokéball was blue. This signified the disconnect between a Pokémon and Pokéball. Paul had disowned his Pokémon and released it back into the wild, without a word. The Starly then flew away into the nearby forest.

Ash's face scrunched up into a harsh scowl, "What did you do that for?!"

"There are other Starly out there that are much stronger than the one I just caught," Paul explained, coldly. He turned to the rest of us and began to walk towards the right of us where Professor Rowan was standing. _When did he get there?_

"Thank you for letting us use your grounds, professor," Paul said with a bow.

"By all means," he replied curtly.

The purple haired boy then left the laboratory, his hands in his pockets.

"That doesn't mean you can just release your Pokémon like that!" Ash called out.

He didn't respond.

I decided to talk to Ash. "Hey, Ash?"

The kid let out a deep breath and spun around to face me, Pikachu limp yet solidly breathing in his arms. "Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"I don't think Paul was in the wrong for releasing his Starly like that."

"What, and you would release your Pokémon if they weren't doing as well as you wanted?!"

"No, I… could you let me finish first?"

"Yeah?"

"If Paul thinks that he won't be using that Starly in battle or for anything else, keeping the Starly would just be a waste, right?"

"But it's a trainer's responsibility to care for their Pokémon and train them to be the best they can be, not to abandon them!"

"Yes, but what if you feel you can't do that for them?"

"Then you shouldn't be a trainer in the first place!"

"And you haven't let Pokémon go thinking they would be better off somewhere else?"

"I…"

 _Stumped you there, didn't I._ "From what I saw of Paul, he is driven by his ambition, he wants the best Pokémon he can get. He probably knows how he behaves around Pokémon he believes are underperforming. So he likely releases Pokémon to essentially save them from himself, and giving them another chance with a trainer who will want them."

"Then he should change, so he can-"

"Sure, when Pikachu decides to go in its Pokéball." I put my hand on his shoulder, he was a bit less than a foot shorter than I was. "When Paul released Starly, he did it not because Starly was weak, but because he knew he wouldn't use it."

"I… guess you're right."

"Then again, I am just making a guess. I don't know him personally." I took my hand off of him. "He could just be a prick."

"I don't know about that," he had emphasised the word "that."

06:30 PM

I never did camping outside of school camps, and the only things I learned that I disliked about camping was long hikes and flies. Both of which I didn't have to worry about anymore, thanks to my Physical Fitness perk and that all the bugs were Pokémon, at least, I thought so until Misty seemed to distance herself from me when we were walking earlier.

"Something wrong, Misty?" I asked.

Misty tensed up, "T-There's a fly on your back."

"A fly?"

"Yes, a fly!"

I replied "Oh, right. You're afraid of bugs," as I reached around my bag on my back to swat it away. S _***! Why did I say "Oh, right." Now she'll know I know too much!"_

"Don't do that, it'll fly over here!"

 _Oh thank god, she seemed to ignore that. Wait… normal insects exist, not just Bug-Type Pokémon?_

We had set up camp on Route 202 as the sun began to set. Lucas and Dawn both struggled to set up their tents, as the bars that held it up kept coming loose. Both of them didn't want to ask for help, but for different reasons.

Dawn because she was too proud to admit she needed help, saying "No, I can definitely do this!"

Lucas because he didn't want to inconvenience anyone. "No it's okay you don't have to do anything for my sake."

Ash, Brock, and Misty all had their tents up and ready in mere minutes, due to their apparent years of experience camping. I wasn't too far behind thanks to my Survival Skills perk, but a new tent meant I had to learn how it worked.

Dinner was, interesting. Brock offered to cook, but when he served a platter of curry full of vegetables, Dawn refused to eat any of it.

"Just take out what you don't like and give it to Lucas," I told her.

"I'm still not eating it."

"Why?"

"Because the taste of the vegetables will still be there once they're gone!"

"Okay, seriously. I hate vegetables just as much as you do. But the curry is only able to taste great because the greens are in there when it's being cooked. At least try what the curry tastes like without the veggies. I'll get you some bread to dunk it in it."

"I'll just have the bread and make myself some sandwiches then."

"Ugh… Okay, I'll give you everything to make it if you promise to at least try it."

"Fine!"

I gave her some bread I had in my back. She then proceeded to slightly scrape the corner of her meal with it and quickly wolfed the piece of bread down.

"It's bland." She said as she left the table and went to her tent.

"She didn't even get enough to taste it," I muttered under my breath.

"Hey, Dawn!" Ash called out, "can I have yours?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

As Ash piled on his plate, I turned to Brock.

"Hey, sorry about that."

"It's okay," he assured, without even a hint of anger in his voice, "Now I know for next time, to serve vegetables separately."

"Oh yeah, speaking of which, you want mine? I'm unhealthy, I know."

I've never been able to handle the texture of most vegetables, despite repeated tries. I can do potato just fine at least, and a bit of pumpkin. I'd have to follow my own words and start trying them again, wouldn't want to travel on an empty stomach.

We went to bed early that night, we had all been through a lot that day. I was sitting down wrapped in my new sleeping bag when I decided to summon Elaine from her Poké Ball.

"Vu? Jach," she shook her head, "Ch… Ch… Ck, Jack!"

I couldn't help but exhale in a silent giggle. "Hi, Elaine." I picked her up and placed her on my lap. "Can I confess something?"

"Vah?"

"I'm 18… 17… I'm in my late teens but I still sleep with a Teddy Bear."

She tilted her head sideways, I thought she may have raised one of her eyebrows with the way her face was shaped, but I couldn't see them underneath her green hair.

 _Wait, do Ralts have eyebrows? Nevermind._ "A Teddy Bear is a cute looking bear made out of wool and is really comfortable, they're designed for little kids to hug while they sleep and to play with like a toy."

Her head remained tilted.

"Nevermind, what I'm getting at is that, because I've slept with a Teddy Bear all my life, it feels uncomfortable to sleep without one. So I was wondering if we could sleep together like we did last night on the couch, and make it a common thing. That okay with you?"

She silently yet fervently nodded.

"Thanks, Elaine."


	14. Entry 14 - The Week on Route 202

23/06/2007

The next few days were a lot less eventful. Well, they weren't uneventful, it was that by this point, a status quo had begun to form. Wake up, have some breakfast, walk, have a lunch break, walk, stop for the day, eat dinner, wash up, sleep, rinse and repeat. At some point during each day, we'd meet someone new or run into Team Rocket breaking the law, most of the time both. Luckily, since Ash and crew were here, they were never able to do anything before Pikachu sent them into orbit. On this particularly nice day, we had met a self-proclaimed travelling bard by the name of Nando.

Just like in the episode, both Dawn and Ash battled his Budew, a grass type Pokémon. Dawn's battle, which happened to be her first, was what she called a "contest battle," which she ended up losing when a Solarbeam, a grass type move that's as powerful as a Volt Tackle, blindsided her.

"What happened?" Dawn questioned indignantly, "I thought Solarbeam takes a while to charge up before it shoots. Why did it charge up so quickly?" She had looked at me when she said that.

"Dawn," I said, with Elaine sleeping in my arms, "first, why does Solarbeam need to charge?"

"Because it needs to absorb sunlight first."

"Right, which is why it was a lot quicker than normal, this time, it's a really sunny day."

"Oh…" she sighed, "that makes sense."

During Nando's battle with Ash, his Budew began to glow a brilliant bright white. It was almost as blinding as the sun. Underneath the light, Budew's form began to shift into an all-new shape, larger than before. When the light faded, what was left was a new Pokémon, a Roselia, green, bipedal, and with a red and blue rose instead of hands. It was the first time I witnessed the miracle of evolution in a Pokémon.

Despite the power increase that Budew, now Roselia, received, Ash was still able to take the victory.

After both battles, Nando complained that he could not decide whether he should strive to enter the Sinnoh Grand Festival or the Lily of the Valley Conference. The former involved attempting to win five ribbons from Pokémon Contests around the region before you could enter whilst the latter involved defeating eight of Sinnoh's Gym Leaders in a Pokémon Battle before being granted entry.

This qualm quickly prompted Ash and Dawn to get into an argument about which was better, if it could even be called that. It mostly devolved into a shouting match.

"Contests are better!"

"No, Gym Battles are!"

"Contests!"

"Gym Battles!"

It was this point that Nando left without anyone noticing, or at least no one said anything about it. Although we did manage to catch manage to catch up with him later on that night, quietly appreciating the sounds of wild Pokémon, which helped to finally calm down the stubborn kids, somehow.

As we were all heading to bed, a thought occurred to me. "Hey, Elaine?"

"Vu?"

"I was wondering, you know how Pikachu is always outside of his Pokéball, right?"

"Vm?"

"Do you want to stay outside of yours?"

"Vm…" she seemed to consider, "Jack, Vah."

"Uh… Is that a yes or a no?"

She didn't nod or shake her head.

"A different answer?"

"Vah," she nodded.

"So… is the answer, sometimes?"

"Vm…" she hummed with neither confirmation or negation.

"Unless I have to?"

She hummed again.

"You don't know?"

She shook her head on that one.

"So there's definitely an answer, I just can't tell what it is."

She nodded.

"I wish I chose Pokéglot."

"Vm?"

"Oh, it was one of those perk things the white guy offered on his sheet, it would have allowed me to understand Pokémon the same way I do humans."

"Vah…" she nodded in resignation.

"I'm sorry Elaine."

"Jack…"

I embraced her tightly and slowly fell to sleep.

24/06/2007

In the afternoon, we ran into another group of people, a lot of them, kids, having a bunch of battles with each other. As they saw us coming, they asked us if we wanted to join. Brock and Misty decided to watch, Ash and I were all for it, and Dawn said something along the lines of "why not."

Lucas seemed unsure about it, "But, what if I'm not any good?"

"Then that's okay!" Ash replied. "Battles are meant to be fun, it doesn't matter if you win or lose. If you win, it's an amazing feeling, but even if you lose, you can learn from your mistakes and become even stronger afterward."

"Okay then, Ash. I'll battle!"

"Oh I forgot to mention," one of the trainers said, "we'll be playing for money. Only eighty Pokédollars though, nothing big.

 _Wait… money? But I'm flat out broke!_ Pumping out eighty bucks from an empty wallet might seem impossible, but eighty Pokédollars were more like eighty cents from how things were priced in the Pokémart in Sandgem. A loaf of bread, for instance, was about as much as a Potion at three hundred Pokédollars. Yet it was still just as impossible to get that much from my wallet. I doubted the Australian coins I had would work as payment. Luckily, Brock was generous and loaned not just me, but the twins as well, some money for the fights.

We were each paired with whoever was available. The battles were all one on one. My first opponent was a youngster named Tristan who had a Starly. It was when I met him that it clicked. _Wait… is this the Elf giving me the game's Trainer Battles?_ Whether or not this was divine intervention or not for the sake of game balance, I sent out Elaine to battle.

It was over pretty quickly after Elaine spammed Confusion, the kid only attacked once. The rest of the battle he was using Growl to weaken my Pokémon's attack stat. I gave him a lecture on Physical and Special attacks, and how Growl only weakens Physical ones.

The next battle with a lass, Natalie, fought with a Bidoof. The fight was almost a carbon copy of the one I had with that wild Bidoof yesterday. The only exception was that during Bidoof's final charge, instead of attempting to dodge, Elaine had suddenly split into two. There was not one Ralts, but two, both transparent and ghostly. Bidoof charged into one of them which suddenly dissipated while the remaining version of Elaine solidified and used Confusion on an already confused Bidoof.

Elaine had used a new move, Double team. It creates the optical illusion of there being a copy or copies of the user, statistically increasing their evasion. It was a move I never used in the games due to the accuracy and evasion stats being too luck based for my liking, but in a real-life scenario, it could open up a bunch of opportunities in combat.

My last battle was with another boy by the name of Logan. He had a Burmy as his Pokémon. The fight was a lot slower paced, mostly due to Burmy's overuse of the move Protect, which blocks any attack. Luckily, what my opponent didn't realise or didn't put into consideration was that the move Protect when used consecutively one after another, had a higher chance of failing. I was able to exploit that fact. After a Protect succeeded, I would call for Elaine to use Confusion, which prompted Logan to call for another Protect. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. Each time after Burmy's Protect failed, I would call for Elaine to use Double Team so that if Burmy did try to attack, it would have a lower chance of working. I lectured the kid about the properties of Protect after our victory.

Apparently, Lucas and Dawn ended up in a battle with each other, which Lucas threw. I mean, he used his Starly against Dawn's Piplup when Turtwig would have been a lot better choice. The rock-paper-scissors relationship that Grass-type, Fire-type, and Water-type Pokémon have is one of the first things you learn about the Pokémon battle system. Though I'm pretty sure he just didn't want to upset Dawn.

"I heard you talking to those kids back there," Misty said, striking up a conversation, "you seem to really know your stuff. How long have you been a Pokémon Trainer?"

 _For god's sake, Misty! Stop asking me questions where answering truthfully doesn't make sense. I don't want to lie, but why do I know all the technical mechanics of Pokémon battling? Well, the games obviously, but they don't exist in this world… wait, no. Some NPCs in the games have DSs and they talk about trading, so…_

"Jack? Did you hear me?"

"Oh, yeah, it's just… well… I've only been a Trainer for… three days?"

"Only three days!" Misty echoed loudly.

"What's three days?" Lucas asked eavesdropping on the conversation.

"Apparently your friend's Pokémon Trainer career," Misty explained.

Lucas furrowed his eyebrows. "But that's how long I've had Turtwig, he had Elaine longer than I did, because when I met Jack he had already caught her."

"I hadn't actually caught Elaine by that point," I explained, "that happened later when I was…" _Oh… my first Pokémon was caught… in a bathroom… while I was mostly naked… note to self, never tell that story._ "At… your place."

"Wait, I've been a Trainer longer than you?" Lucas asked, dumbstruck.

"Yep."

"But you know so much more about Pokémon than I do. You know about type-effectiveness, abilities, whatever that attack bonus thing was, what you told those trainers earlier, and even legendary Pokémon. I'm sorry sir, but I just can't believe that you're a beginner. Wait, no, sorry, not "sir," Jack."

"It's okay, Lucas. You're right… I do know a lot more than a newbie should. I…" _Stuff it, I don't have any other excuse, if this doesn't work, I'll have to admit I'm an alien._ "It's because I played a lot of video games about being a Pokémon Trainer since I was seven, it's a mix of that, watching TV and the internet that gives me all my knowledge."

A voice from behind me piped up, "So you're a nerd?" Dawn asked.

"Oh, you have no idea," I announced with an ominously deep voice.

After we all gave back the money we borrowed to Brock we walked away from the battles with an eight hundred Pokédollar profit. Aside from Lucas who fought his sister, everyone had a perfect streak. Dinner that night was very celebratory and we had something Dawn would eat.

"Hey, Elaine?" I asked as we went to bed.

She jolted upright.

"Did I just wake you up."

"Vmhm." She exaggeratedly shook her head."

"Right… Anyway," I said as I sat up, "I was thinking I could try figuring out your question from last night."

"Vuhuh?"

"So, the answer isn't entirely yes or no, but sometimes doesn't entirely explain your answer… what did you say again?"

"Jack, vah!" she exclaimed pointing at me.

"Right, thought so, was just making sure." Which was true due to my Savant perk giving me perfect memory, though it hadn't been as perfect as it said on the tin. "So… your answer somehow involves me?"

She nodded curtly.

"In what way, though?"

Elaine sighed.

"Sorry, I just want to make things good for you, you know?"

"Chack, vah!"

"Mispronounced the 'j' there – wait… You said the same thing. So… what would you have said there?"

"Jack, vah!"

"I said… I wanted to make things good for you… Thank you?"

Elaine shook her head.

"What would I say? Hey Jack, I want to make things good for you… Oh, I don't mind?"

"Vah! Vah!" Elaine nodded vigorously.

"You… don't mind… Heh, well that doesn't help me out."

"Vuuu…" she groaned.

"Wait, how does that involve me?"

Elaine sighed.

"Okay, I'll stop." If you don't mind, can I keep you out of your Poké Ball?"

"Vhm," she nodded.

"Alright, goodnight Elaine."

"Vuvah, Jack."

Jesus, you're adorable.

25/06/2007

After a scramble with Team Rocket, Pikachu ended up under the protection of a wild Turtwig, who mistook the group of us as being a threat of some sort. _Seriously, why in the hell did I not get myself Pokéglot._ After that got sorted out, we met an elderly woman who was a friend of the Turtwig, who described the Pokémon's strong sense of chivalry and justice. After the Rockets showed up again, Ash ended up catching the Turtwig. _So that's, what, three Starly, two Turtwig, and two Chimchar to keep track of now? It'd be nice to have some more variety._

"I'm glad I gave you a name, so it's harder to confuse you for other Ralts if we meet any," I said to Elaine.

"Vewahn…?"

"Are you trying to say your own name now?"

"Vm."

"Don't try to focus too much on speaking, otherwise you might end up like Meowth."

"Vm?"

"I mean, he's not very strong is he."

"Vm… Veh… Ehwa…"

"You're adorable, you know that."

"Vm!" she pouted.

I chuckled at her exasperation. "Although seriously, I think that Pokémon that learn to speak a human language can't get stronger anymore because their minds have been reformatted or something."

"Vuh?!" Her response somehow filled my subconscious with a pang of dread.

"Hey, don't worry about it. The amount you speak now doesn't seem to be affecting your power. You learned Double Team while you knew how to say my name."

"Vm…" The dread was replaced by a strong sense of disappointment.

"Are… Are you sending me your emotions?"

"Vhm," she nodded.

"Maybe you could learn to talk through your psychic powers or something?"

"Va!" she exclaimed, then she suddenly began to vibrate and then it was is I felt a near-literal explosion in my head.

"Ow! Ffff… My head…"

"Jack! Vah… Vah, vua!"

"Did you use Confusion on me?" My vision was blurred and I felt dizzy.

"Vuahu…"

"I'm alright now, there's no need to worry. It just means we'll have to be careful and take it slowly if you want to talk telepathically."

"Vm…"

"We'll be fine Elaine, and I don't mind if you can't talk."

26/06/2007

We ran into Paul and Ash immediately challenged him to a battle, which Team Rocket interrupted of course, which ended up sending the two trainers down a cliff into a forest inhabited by Stantler. We managed to regroup afterward, and the battle resumed.

Paul's Chimchar was victorious over Ash's Turtwig, mostly due to the type advantage it had. Despite the poor matchup, they fought well, but it meant that Paul actually considered himself a better trainer than Ash, which of course lead to bitter feelings between the two of them.

27/06/2007

After another debacle with Team Rocket over a collection of berries, Dawn was the one to dispatch of them this time. This was thanks to a Bubble attack she had taught Piplup to use while spinning in place.

Misty had a lot of fun playing with all the Water-Type Pokémon that had collected the berries.

28/06/2007

Team Rocket was up to their usual shenanigans again, this time they were disguised for a scheme to steal Pokémon as an official Pokémon Gym offering to train them. Despite their "disguise," it was immediately obvious who they were from one look, at least it was to me. No one else caught on to their identities. _Okay, seriously. People cannot be this bad at facial recognition. I mean, who else has hair like Jessie's?_

I was going to expose them, as soon as I saw them, but then when I saw the purple and bipedal frog Pokémon under Jessie's temporary control, I decided against it. This was because, in the anime, Brock becomes the owner of the Croagunk.

However, I suck at keeping secrets, so I decided to confide in someone.

"Hey, Lucas?" I said as Jessie was battling with a girl about my age named Minnie who told us of the gym in the first place when we met her on the road, of which Brock became immediately became infatuated with as he does with anyone female.

"Yeah?"

"You notice anything weird about the Gym Leader and her workers?" I motioned to James who was refereeing the battle.

"You too?"

"Wait, you noticed who they look like?"

"Yeah, those Rocket people. Do Ash and his friends have a plan or something I don't know about?"

Huh… That's different.

"I don't think they actually realise it's them."

"Really? I don't mean to be rude but who could mistake that girl's uh… interesting hair as belonging to anyone else? And that's obviously a talking Meowth, right?"

"He is."

"So then there's some plan I don't know about, right? I mean, Misty said they've been dealing with Team Rocket for years now. They're playing along for some reason."

"If that's the case we'll ask them later, don't want to blow our cover."

I decided to play along with Lucas's theory, didn't want to stress him out with vague meta-knowledge just for Croagunk and Brock to meet. He and I had calmed down about the fact that criminal were hunting down Ash and crew daily, due to their ultimate inconsequentiality. I mean it's hard to be scared of three idiots who can't take a single Thunderbolt.

The plot continued, Team Rocket's plan to steal Pokémon under the guise of a free training program was revealed and thwarted, and Croagunk joined Brock's team.

Brock made an advance at Minnie when we were about to leave which was interrupted by Croagunk striking him with a Poison Jab to the abdomen. _So… we're keeping that then. This running gag is going to be annoying up close, isn't it?_

"Vm…" Elaine emanated an emotion of worry.

"He'll be fine Elaine."

29/06/2007

Dawn finally caught a Buneary today. She failed to do so in the morning but then the Buneary came back because of her flagrant crush on Pikachu. _Unreciprocated love seems to be a recurring theme here._ Also, Team Rocket was there, doing nothing new, though Buneary was responsible for getting Pikachu back from them this time.


	15. Entry 15 - Jubilant City Life

30/06/2007 – 11:00 AM

We had finally made it to Jubilife City. From afar it looked like Melbourne's CBD, a bunch of tall buildings and such pressed against each other in a grid. Up close, it was a lot less populated than Melbourne, and almost no vehicles. The six of us headed straight to the Pokémon Centre. As we were about to enter, however, Lucas pulled me back and motioned towards a man who looked to be attempting to be comically sneaky behind a lamppost.

"That man," he commented. "What is he doing?"

"I don't know." I lied. "Want to go ask him?"

I already knew the identity of the strange man, but only the way he introduced himself would be fit enough to describe it.

The two of us walked towards him, his back was turned to us.

Nervously, Lucas exclaimed, "Um…"

The man spun around immediately, "WHAAAT?!" he yelled, loud enough to wake up Elaine sleeping in my arms, with a start.

"Va!" She yelled, 'Vavuvah!" then turned around in my arms and tried to go back to sleep.

He looked to be in his late thirties, he was thin and had simple brown hair. He wore a tan trench coat and was fairly thin. He looked a lot like David Tennant's portrayal of the Doctor.

"How did you know?" he asked abrasively, and in a British accent, "How did you unmask me as a member of the International Police?!"

"Huh? What?" Lucas asked confuddled, "I beg your pardon? I was just making conversation…"

"…Heh." The man overacted, "You claim you were only making conversation, do you?" He shot a finger at Lucas. "But, I know better not to believe that. No, no, no."

Each sentence was punctuated with wild arm movement that was very reminiscent of Hououin Kyouma, from Steins;Gate.

"You recognised right away that I was someone extraordinary. That is why you spoke to me, is it not? Your power of observation is fearsome! Quite admirable, you are!"

He then toned down his monologue. "Now that my cover has been blown, let me introduce myself. I am a globe-trotting elite of the International Police. My name… Ah, no, I shall inform you only of my code name. My code name, it is Looker. It is what they all call me. Incidentally, is the saying, 'Don't be a thief!' familiar to you?"

Lucas, finally given the opportunity to speak, shakily said, "Um… Yes?"

"Of course, Looker," I commented.

"Yes, that is correct," Looker said, implying that knowing a phrase is the right answer. "Taking what belongs to others is wrong. Unfortunately, there are apparently those who do not heed those words."

He dropped his voice to a near whisper, "In Sinnoh, in fact, there are criminals stealing the Pokémon of others. I have, therefore, been on the lookout for characters arousing my suspicion."

"You mean like -" I tried to say before I was interrupted.

"Incidentally, you are Trainers, yes? Perhaps you can make use of this?" he held out what looked like a blue smartphone.

"You can take it, Lucas," I offered.

"I don't think… Can you take it, please?"

"Okay, if you're sure."

"That Versus Recorder," Looker explained, "it is a nifty device for recording a match. I obtained it because it is quite popular these days. But myself, I do not do Pokémon battling very often. It will be better in your hands."

Looker looked a look across the surrounding area. _That was an easy pun, don't be proud of it._

"Also, I have a request. If you were to see me again, I ask you not talk to me, for I am on duty." He turned to walk off, only to do a double take and turn back. "Actually, yes, yes, you may speak to me. You must. Not because I am lonely, no, no! You must inform me of bad guys! You must inform me of any happenings!" Then, he was off. He ran away from sight.

We stood there in silence for a while until Lucas commented. "Working for the International Police must be hard."

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Should we tell him about Team Rocket?"

"I don't think so. Team Rocket is only dangerous when they're not near Ash, and there are honestly much worse criminal orginisations out there. Have you heard about Team Magma or Team Aqua in Hoenn?"

"Oh, yeah. One tried to cause a worldwide drought, the other a worldwide flood, right? They were on the news not that long ago."

"Yeah, either would have lead to a lot of civilian casualties. It's groups like those two that the International Police are after, not those three bumbling idiots following us around."

"I guess you're right. Ash and his friends are really good at getting rid of them, even with new Pokémon. Even Dawn could do it. I could only hope that my team and I become that strong."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short. You haven't lost a battle before, have you?"

"Well, no but-"

"And I reckon you could easily beat us in a battle. Elaine isn't bulky enough to survive your attacks." I lifted my Elaine loaded arms to emphasise.

"Yeah, but you make up for it with brains. You know so much more about Pokémon than all of us combined."

"No, I don't."

"No you definitely do, I mean, you know all about Legendary Pokémon, type matchups, statistics, moves, I mean, only Brock knew that same type attack bonus was a thing until you brought it up."

"But Brock knows the best way to take care of Pokémon on an emotional level, and Ash knows how to create unorthodox strategies in battle. I don't have any practical experience with that."

"Well, what I mean is… You're all a lot better than I am."

 _Woah. That's some intense inferiority. That's… not good._ "Stop that, don't be mean to yourself."

"But-"

"No buts, Lucas, let me talk to you for a moment. Remember what happened at Lake Verity? You had the single-minded intention of finding your sister. Nothing could have stopped you. You blistered your foot on how hard you ran, you ran faster than Barry. You have tremendous willpower when you set your mind to something. I've learned a lot about you over the past week, you're a lot more than you give yourself credit for. You remind me of a character from an anime I've watched, it should be airing right now actually."

"What do you mean by should be?"

S- "Sorry, I meant it is airing. Weird slip of the tongue there." _Please don't look too much into it._

"It sort of sounded like you've seen it before it went on TV."

"Yeah, it did hehe." _Enforce the mistake, enforce the idea I made a mistake._ "Anyway, I'm talking about Gurren Lagann. You know about it?"

"I've seen the name on TV guides, but other than that, not really."

"Well, the main character, Simon, (pronounced see-mohn,) has an inferiority complex, so his older brother figure, Kamina, who actually looks to Simon as inspiration for his fighting spirit, has this quote. Don't believe in yourself, believe in the me who believes in you. And I believe in you Lucas, you have a lot of potential waiting to be released." _I mean, you're the protagonist of the games. It's not Dawn since she's the anime version, which leaves you to eventually become the Champion. Unless the Elf guy wants me to do it._

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that, if you ever think that you're not good enough, just remember that I think that you can do it and that, as you've said, I'm a smart person. Because I know that you can do it, you'll know you can do it too."

Lucas had no rebuttal, he was silent and let his head fall downwards.

"Lucas?"

"Y-you're seriously using anime quotes to cheer me up?"

"Well, yeah… I'm a massive nerd."

"You're a weird guy, J-Jack." Lucas's voice was shaky.

"Yeah, I know. Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I just- I can't believe t-that I'm- You're consoling me over something so stupid."

"It's not stupid Lucas. I've gone through the exact same things you're feeling right now."

"Y-you? Really?"

"Yeah, really. Last year, I was in school, and I was really struggling. I kept getting worse and worse marks. I felt I couldn't do anything. But I got through that, and you can too."

"But, I'm not like you."

"Remember what I said?"

Lucas didn't respond.

"C'mon, you remember, don't you?"

"If you think I can do it… then I should believe in you, right?"

"That's it. C'mon, the others are probably waiting for us."

"Yeah."

"You sure you don't want this?" I held up the Vs. Recorder.

"Heh, I'm sure."

11:45 AM

We decided to take a break until lunch, which the Pokémon Centre served for free to travelling Trainers. _Free food? How the heck Pokémon Centres were funded._ Luckily they had multiple public PC's that could connect to the internet, meaning that I could do valuable research on all the things that weren't covered in the original material. Things like funding, politics, laws, things that would be common knowledge if you were to live in the world of Pokémon, but are too boring or risque for kids.

Turns out that the organisation that runs things like the Ever Grande Conference, and the biggest sports firm in the world, lead a large scale funding campaign that paid for Pokémon Centres and Pokémon Gyms. It was in order to get more talent onto the scene and allow for Trainers to become stronger naturally. When I say biggest, they had a monopoly on the world. They paid Pokémarts to keep their stock cheap and putting your advertisements during their events was as expensive as America's Superbowl for just one local conference. Battles featuring Champions, between themselves across regions and between upcoming talent were just as, if not more successful. The firm was named The Pokémon Company and had a subsidiary called Game Freak that made video games about Pokémon in order to teach kids how to battle and inspired them to become Trainers.

Some digging into The Pokémon Company's website, I found a list of laws about being a Trainer. The laws were summarised before going into detail in a fifty-page document.

 _"1. In order to own a Pokémon, you must have an official Pokémon Trainer ID. This can be in the form of an official Pokédex, a physical card or one of the other forms. Details on page 9._

 _2\. You can apply to receive a Trainer ID after you have reached the age of 10, or under the consent of a legal guardian before the age of 10. More info on page 13_

 _3\. If under the age of 10, all activities with Pokémon must be done either within a public area or supervised by a person 10 years or older with a Trainer ID._

 _4\. No individual can carry more than 6 Pokémon at a time outside of their residential home, and a separate Pokémon Carer ID must be in your possession if you care for more than 6 Pokémon at a time. Otherwise, Pokémon must be given to a trusted Carer, this includes "Bill's PC Box System." Information on the definition of "carry" on page 14. Information on Carer ID application on page 38._

 _5\. A Pokémon Breeder ID must be in your possession when running a business allowing for the breeding of Pokémon. All businesses of such must be labeled accordingly. More information on page 31._

 _6\. Unreasonable cruelty towards Pokémon will result in the loss of Pokémon Trainer IDs and all other associated IDs. This includes but is not limited to; abuse, assault, extreme conditions, prolonged confinement, sexual assault, slaughter, theft, and others detailed in pages 16 to 30."_

Everything except rule six made sense to me. It was way too vague. _What constitutes assault and abuse when battling with them is so popular?_ So, I spent far longer than I would care to admit trying to go through all the legal jargon of fifteen pages. In the most basic of senses, it said you shouldn't do anything that either the anime or games have portrayed the evil teams doing to Pokémon. What was really interesting was what counted as sexual assault. Apparently, if the Pokémon in question gave informed consent, it was entirely legal. You were allowed to have sex with Pokémon. _Surely this is taboo, right? Not enough people would naturally want to copulate with this world's version of animals to want to_ legalise _it, the backlash alone would make The Pokémon Company want to make it all illegal just to keep appearances._

A Wikipedia article (the Internet had the same websites as my world, like Google and Facebook,) all about the relations between Pokémon and people linked to another article, which detailed that it was legalised during a movement similar to the sexual revolution in the 1960s. There were a lot of black and white photos of people protesting alongside bipedal human-like Pokémon, though there was the occasional mammalian quadruped or even a six-legged Bug-Type. Some of the protesting signs read phrases such as, _"I can consent,"_ or _"I love my Trainer."_ A few of them quoted what I found out to be a relatively well-known folktale that I knew a copy of which was in the Canalave Library. _"There once were Pokémon that married people. There once were people who married Pokémon. This was a normal thing because long ago people and Pokémon were the same."_

 _Yeah… I should lie down now. That's a lot to take in._

12:30 PM

After lunch, Ash and Dawn decided to continue training at the Pokémon Centre for their upcoming Gym Battle and Contest respectively. Brock decided to stay back as well, he didn't say why, but we all knew it was to gawk at the Nurse. All the head nurses of the Pokémon Centres all seemed identical, but Brock was adamant that there were slight differences in all of them, like different eyelash lengths. Brock's nice, but he could sure as hell be creepy sometimes.

Lucas, Misty and I all decided to take in the sights of the large city. When we came across a wood-built structure that was labeled as a _"Trainer School. Free Visitation for Trainers."_

I suggested we all check it out. "I'd like to test my knowledge," I told the other two.

"Why do you need to test your knowledge when you know pretty much everything they can teach anyway?" Misty snarked.

"To flex my intellectual ego of course," I replied.

"Right…"

"Hold on," Lucas exclaimed, "Isn't that Barry at the chalkboard?" He pointed to a blonde haired boy with a white and orange striped shirt.

"I think so," I lied. "Don't you have a parcel from his mum you need to give him?"

"Yeah, it's in my bag." He said as he walked through the doorway.

"Who's Barry?" Misty asked.

"Lucas's neighbour and friend." Which I already knew would be here, because that's where he was in the games.

"Hey, Lucas!" Barry said when he noticed his pal entering. "Oh, you brought your older friend and… is that his girlfriend."

"What?!" Misty and I exclaimed.

"No, Barry," Lucas explained. "She's not Jack's girlfriend, and her name is Misty."

"But don't all guys his age have girlfriends or something?"

"Barry, stop. You're hurting my pride." I cried.

"Anyway, did you come to study, too?" Barry asked. "I went ahead and memorized everything that was up on the blackboard. After all, it's the Trainer's job to avoid having their precious Pokémon hurt in battle, right?"

On the blackboard was some basic information about the five main status ailments you can inflict on a Pokémon. Poison, Burn, Paralysis, Sleep, and Frozen.

"I… I guess?" Lucas replied.

"So, Lucas, what brings you?"

"Well, your mom asked me to deliver something." He said as he grabbed a box wrapped in brown paper from his bag.

"Huh? You've got something for me?" Barry asked.

"Yep, here you go."

Barry took the parcel and carelessly ripped it open. "Score! It's a Town Map!" He exclaimed. "Huh?! Why are there two in here?" he said as he held up two booklets. "I like it a lot, but I don't need two. Here, Lucas, you take one!" He said as he shoved one of the booklets into Lucas's hand.

"Is this kid always this… intense?" Misty asked.

"Yes," I replied without hesitation.

Barry hummed as he flipped through his new booklet. "Well, according to the Town Map, I guess Oreburgh City is where I should be going next. There's a Gym, so it'd be perfect for raising my Pokémon."

"I guess so…" Lucas commented.

Barry pocketed his map. "Well, I'm on the road to becoming the greatest Trainer of all time!" Then he began to run towards the door beside us. "See you around!"

Before Barry was gone, however, I reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Hold on a moment."

"What the hell, man?!" Barry exclaimed. "Let go of me!"

"Before you run off, let me tell you something."

"Alright, but if it's a waste of my time, I'm fining you!"

"Dawn's going to be performing in the Jubilife contest in two days. You should stay and watch it."

"Contest? I mean I guess I could, but that would be wasting valuable time I could be spending training."

"I don't know, I think you could gain some valuable insight during the battle portion of it, you might find some of the strategies the Coordinators use could be useful in regular battles."

"Huh. You make a good point. Alright, I'll stay in Jubilife until the contest is over."

"There's a good boy."

I let him go, and then he was off.

12:40 PM

"Alright, tell me about the Poisoned status." The teacher instructed.

I replied, "The Poisoned status when inflicted drains the health of the Pokémon over time. The status cannot affect Poison-Types or Steel-Types. There are two types of being Poisoned. The regular kind and the Badly Poisoned kind. Being Badly Poisoned means that the Poison becomes more potent over time, and is thus far stronger the regular poison status. Moves that can inflict poison include Poison Gas, Poison Sting and I think Smog, correct me if I'm wrong. Moves that can inflict Badly Poisoned include Toxic, Poison Fang and two stacks of Toxic Spikes upon switch in. The item Toxic orb can also inflict Badly Poisoned to the holder. The status can actually be beneficial to certain Pokémon, such as when they have the ability Poison Heal which turns poison into being healed or the Guts ability which gives an attack boost when Poisoned. And with a Toxic Orb in the hand of a Pokémon who cannot be Poisoned or benefits it, you can combine it with a move like Trick or Switcharoo to give that item to the opponent, thus Badly Poisoning them. Some other combos you can do is combining the Poisoned Status with Leech Seed or Protect so that you can stall the opponent while they can't do anything-"

"Stop, stop. You can stop now."

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No. You clearly know everything and even more than I know about this area of study."

"Wait… more than the entire curriculum?"

"Yes. At least in this case."

"That can't be true. Ask me anything about what you teach."

"I… fine. What types does the Water-Type resist?"

"Fire, not Rock, Water, Ice, and I think Steel?"

"Right. What is the fastest move?"

"I was almost going to say Fake Out, but it's Protect, Detect and other protecting moves like that."

"What can trigger Pokémon Evolution?"

"Depending on the species, experience in battle, time of day, it's friendliness with its Trainer, evolutionary stones such as Moon Stones and Dawn Stones, Trading, knowing a certain move, being in a magnetically charged location, holding them upside down, being with a specific different species of Pokémon."

"Wait… hold upside down? What Pokémon would that be?"

"Inkay evolving into Malamar."

"I've never heard of them."

"Well they're right here," I said as I pulled them up on my Pokédex.

"Ugh… see what I mean, you know more than I do."

 _But I knew all of this stuff before I took Savant. Sure, I might have been quicker on the draw, but how can the education system based around Pokémon, in the world of Pokémon, know less than someone who has never seen a real-life Pokémon until a bit over a week ago?_


	16. Entry 16 - The Extent of My Knowledge

01:00 PM

For their lunch break, some of the students asked the three of us to battle them. These battles were wagered for a hundred a twenty Pokédollars each, which I actually had this time, even if it was half of what I had. I was asked specifically by two school kids if I could battle with them with the house rule that you were allowed to use one item on your Pokémon. I accepted the conditions, as I still had a couple potions that went unused.

Christine's Bidoof and Harrison's Starly were no trouble, it was easy to take them. They both used X-Items the first opportunity they had in battle, which raised their Pokémon's stats, however that meant a free opportunity for Elaine to blast them with Confusion. Christine's X-Defend had no effect since I was using Special Attacks the entire time, and while Harrison's X-Attack made his Starly more dangerous than I would have liked, a mid-battle potion did the trick.

"While using X-Items is a viable strategy," I explained, "you have to consider if using it is even worth it in the first place. Think to yourself, can my Pokémon take an attack from the opponent. While yes, they were both able to survive a Confusion, it was still a huge hit and it left them in a vulnerable state. I guess overall, you should consider your opponent's strengths and weaknesses before you use X-Items."

Lucas battled a couple kids and their Abra's and modestly destroyed them with his Turtwig. Misty, being a Gym Leader and battling kids who were still learning the ropes, also had some easy victories as her Staryu wet the kids' pants. No seriously, Staryu shot a Water Gun that ended up hitting the kid's Bidoof and their pants. Harrison had even given us each a spare potion as thanks for teaching him and his peers so much about battling. We all left the school grounds with a bit more pocket change and a bit of an inflated ego. Except for Lucas who was adamant he fluked his battles.

02:30 PM

There was nothing else too interesting that we found in the city, other than a bunch of people going crazy over the release of a new smartwatch dubbed the Pokétch, there were lines into almost every electronics store and apparently stock was running out fast.

We came back to the Pokémon Centre to see Brock being dragged along the floor by his Croagunk. Probably because he tried to flirt with Nurse Joy again. Ash and Dawn were having a break from their training, so I took this opportunity to surf the web on one of the public PC's.

"What are you doing Jack?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, I was just wondering what the heck was up with the Pokétch." While I knew all about its capabilities from the games, I was more interested to find out if it was The Pokémon Company had anything to do with it.

"Dawn's been excited to get one since she saw an ad on TV about it."

"Yeah?" I chuckled, "does she realise how expensive it is?"

"She doesn't care."

"That sounds about right."

"I was thinking about looking up a few things myself actually," he said as he sat at the PC next to me.

"Like what?"

"Same type attack bonus."

"I could just tell you about it."

"Yeah, but I'm hoping to find… well… I don't mean any offense."

"You're looking for a simpler explanation?"

"Um… Yeah."

"You don't have to worry about not getting what I say sometimes, it happens all the time, even back home."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'd be rich if I got a buck each time I've been likened to Sherlock or Sheldon."

"What's a buck?"

"Oh, slang for a dollar in Dochaku."

"I know who Sherlock Holmes is, but who's Sheldon?"

 _F*** I did it again! When did Big Bang Theory start airing? Crap, I don't know, uh… just say it's a bad show and go on with it._ "A poor representation of someone with Autism from a crappy show."

"Wait… Sheldon… Sheldon… I think I've heard of that sort of person before? Ah, nevermind."

 _Oh, thank god!_

So the firm that made the Pokétch is a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company. In fact, after a bit more digging, everything relating to the facilities and products used in the games had some connection to the company. This included research facilities such as Professor Rowan's Lab and thus the Pokédex, Pokémon Fan Clubs, Pokémon Contests production of Poké Balls and Potions. If the Pokémon series wasn't targeted towards kids, I would have been legitimately scared of the possibility of a society like George Orwell's _"1984."_

Moving away from Pokémon dystopia, I decided to look some less political things, instead choosing to look up stuff like YouTube and info on video games. YouTube wasn't even worth it since a lot of the videos were at most 360p and none of the polished content you could find back home. The best stuff was either Angry Video Game Nerd or maybe Smosh if you were nine years old.

I did manage to find the Super Smash Bros Brawl website, not all the characters were announced yet. So I decided to post the list of the final roster anonymously to a message board just to stir things up. I gave it no context and just listed the characters. Of course, everyone thought it was fake. _Ah… knowledge of the future… no one believes it so it's mostly useless._ Oddly enough, most the Pokémon representatives had nicknames. Pikachu was Sparky, Jigglypuff was named Lullaby in Melee and Pichu in Melee was Zip. Mewtwo was un nicknamed, probably due to its status as a Legendary Pokémon.

Then I did something I never did back home, I looked up the news, and it looked like any other sort of news outlet. Politician's being selfish or incompetent or secretive or all of the above, a wildfire in Hoenn, Pokémon thievery, _wait… Actual, successful stealing of someone else's Pokémon?_ The article described an organised gang headed by one Hunter J. They had access to state-of-the-art and experimental technology and powerful Pokémon such as Salamence as eyewitnesses described.

 _S***... I'm going to have to deal with her… f***!_ Hunter J was a recurring antagonist of the Pokémon Anime, and she was willing to kill people, actually murder. She was as if Team Rocket weren't idiotic and didn't have any semblance of moral integrity, Jessie, James, and Meowth were thieves, yes, but they would never kill anyone, and the people that they respected, they genuinely cared for. Hunter J doesn't hesitate to kill her own employees, she only cares for the wealth she gains from her work. She is that reprehensible, that the writers decided to actually kill her off in the anime. It's never pictured exactly what she was able to achieve off screen but it was implied that she was successful. Hunter J needed to be brought to justice.

"Are you okay Jack?" Lucas asked.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, "it's just this article about Hunter J, she's stolen other people's Pokémon. Not like Team Rocket, this bitch is actually good at it."

"Woah! Swear word!"

"Yeah I know, I don't normally swear, but this filth deserves it."

"It's still not nice to swear…"

"I know what you mean, Lucas. I used to have a catchphrase, _'Don't swear, it's uncivilised.'_ I said it a lot back at school."

"Well… what do you think of Team Magma and Team Aqua then, they were trying to end the world, right?"

"Here's the difference though, they thought they were doing the right thing. They wanted to do good but didn't realise it would have been really dangerous. Hunter J is just doing it for the money."

"You say that like you know them."

"I don't, but I've done a lot of research."

"Well, at least something like that is unlikely to happen to us."

 _But no, Ash encounters J, a few times actually. We're going to meet her. And if you end up like the protagonist of the games, you're probably going to have to deal with her as well, since both the anime and the games seem to be connected in this version of Pokémon._

"Jack? You sure you're okay?"

"Lucas," I sighed, _tell the truth, but not all of it._ "I promised your mum I'd take care of you two. I'm worried about what could happen if we end up against someone like J."

"Oh…"

"Sorry to bring the mood down."

"No, it's alright, no need to worry."

"Doesn't Dawn say that a lot?"

"Say what?"

"No need to worry."

"Oh, yeah she does. Hey, has Elaine been asleep for all this time?"

"Hm?" I looked down to Elaine sleeping in my lap. She had her back against my stomach. "I guess she has, that fighting must have tuckered her out."

"But wasn't she asleep this morning?"

"Yeah, she was. And then that Looker guy woke her up."

"Heh, yeah." _Wait, Looker! That's it!_ "Maybe we could talk to him about Hunter J."

"How come, he said we should only talk to him if we knew anything about criminals, and you didn't want to talk about Team Rocket."

"That's true, maybe we could ask him if he knows anything so that we can have a safe trip?"

"I… guess?"

 _And then I'll actually tell him about J's next heist, and get them to be prepared for it._

08:30 PM

The six of us shared three rooms, two to each. Misty and Dawn shared one because they were the two girls and it was the easiest pair to choose. I ended up with Brock and Ash and Lucas were together, mostly to shorten the age gap between. Each room had a set of bunks and an en-suite. I just have to say that having a shower after a week of no bathrooms is one of the best feelings ever. So I spent a bit longer than normal in there. Brock also spent a long time in the bathroom, but he did bring his bag with him so one could only guess what he was doing.

That night, Team Rocket pulled a scheme. Earlier that day, Ash, Dawn, and Brock all got free Pokétchs. First by getting fake ones from Team Rocket disguised, though they didn't know it at the time, and then when the inventor of the Pokétch's son showed them that it was fake, his father decided to give them a real one for free as apologies for not noticing the counterfeits in circulation.

The fake Poketches were all actually microphones in which during the night Team Rocket broadcasted a Stantler's Hypnosis. The Hypnosis affected all the Pokémon who could hear it, which forced them all to march out of the city and into a metal box acting as a cage.

This was thwarted when Dawn's Buneary and Piplup dodged an incoming blast and counter-attacked. They were able to do that due to a spinning technique that Dawn had taught them during training.

The six of us were walking back to the Pokémon Centre when Lucas pulled me aside.

"What is it, Lucas?" I asked.

Lucas looked at the floor and tensed his shoulders. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, go ahead," I said, nonchalantly.

"Have…" he hesitated, he seemed to struggle to find the words "Have you ever watched an episode of Big Bang Theory? The show that Sheldon's from."

 _Um… what? I mean I have, but… wait… has it not aired yet?_ "How come you're asking?" I asked, attempting to keep myself from panicking.

And in the second time since I met him, I saw the depths of his conviction, Lucas replied "I… Can you… Can you just answer the question, please?"

 _Is he on to me? He's f***ing on to me. Crap, what do I do. If I say yes, he might say that it's impossible, but if I say no he might ask why I think it's so bad._

Elaine, who was somehow awake at that point in time, turned her head up to me. Perhaps she could have sensed my anxiety. The one creature who I had told the whole truth to was lying in my arms looking up at me in concern. "Jack," she said as she gripped my shirt.

 _Stuff it, when in doubt, say the truth._ "I have," I said in a deep voice.

And then, all of the doubt in his mind was gone and Lucas flooded all of his thoughts onto me. "But, you couldn't have. There have only been trailers, there hasn't been an episode on TV at all, I checked. How have you been called Sheldon when the character hasn't been on TV yet? How do you know so much Jack? Why do you know about same type attack bonus? I checked online, and at the most right now it's a theory and it hasn't been proven. Why do you have, what was it, Mespirit in your Pokédex? Why did you know about Team Rocket? How did you know about Ash Ketchum being in the Sinnoh Region? How do you know all these things? Who are you, Jack?"

I didn't know what to say, the first thing in my mind was the only thing that popped out of my mouth. "It's Mesprit, not Mespirit."

"That doesn't matter now. Jack, you're a nice person, you really are, but you know things that are impossible, and I don't know what to do."

I knew, at that moment, that I had to tell Lucas Koki Diamond, everything. "You ever heard of the phrase, the truth is stranger than fiction?"

"Yeah?"

"Well… Why don't we talk in the Pokémon Centre."

09:30 PM

I came back to the cafeteria from my room carrying my Colorado branded, black, leather wallet and Elaine perched on my shoulder. As I sat down opposite Lucas at the table, I explained, "When I came to Sinnoh, all I had was a pencil, a pair of headphones, the clothes I was wearing and this wallet."

"That sounds harsh. When did you arrive in Sinnoh anyway?"

"The day I met you and Elaine. I met her," I explained as I pat her head, "as soon as I got here. I found you battling Barry half an hour later."

"Just outside Twinleaf Town in half an hour after coming into the region? How did you do that?"

"I'll explain that later. There's a lot I need to explain before that."

"Okay?"

"First off," I said as I opened my wallet and pulled out a card, "I want you to look at this."

"What is it?"

"It's my Student ID from last year, wait no, not last year, a year ago."

"What do you mean, aren't they the same thing…?" Lucas stared at the info on the card, "What, how?! This says it's from 2017?! And that you were born eight years ago?! But you look just the same in your photo, then…" he looked back up at me, "Is this some complicated prank? There's no way you're a time traveler."

"Well… I'm not really… I guess you could say I am, sort of? It's more that I jumped between parallel universes, rather than travelled through time."

"Are… are you telling the truth this time? Something like this can be fake, right?" He handed back my Student ID.

"Well, I guess it could easily be faked, that's my biggest proof right there of my origin, I'm telling the truth."

"So… you're saying you're from the future, then?"

"As I said, sort of, but not really."

"Then what is it then?"

"I come from a different world, a world where Pokémon don't exist, and when I left, it was the twenty-second of May 2018."

"Wait, what? Pokémon don't exist? That's a lie, right? How come you know so much about Pokémon then?"

"Where I come from, Pokémon is a video game series, and TV show, and card game, and a worldwide phenomenon, all created by Game Freak."

"But Pokémon are real. I mean, Elaine's sitting right there on your shoulder."

"And you have no idea what it's like for that to be the case for someone who's dreamt about it since they were four."

"So, what? You're saying you never met a Pokémon until you met Elaine half an hour before you met me?"

"Exactly."

"So… you know all about this stuff from playing those games and watching the show and everything?"

"Yeah, since it's a video game, people have hacked into the code of the games to see how everything worked."

"So… what about us? Is everyone here just a video game character to you?"

"Well… funny thing is, there's a lot of differences between the show and the games. Ash is the main character of the show, and you're the playable character in one of the games, and in both of them, the two of you never met each other. You and Dawn were never twins as well. Misty never came to the Sinnoh region, and I never existed."

"So my existence is a lie to you then?!"

"No Lucas, you are a real person and nothing like the silent and self-insert protagonist I played as. In fact, you're the most unique person out of everyone I've met in this world, the only one not to be defined by my world's portrayal of you."

"Just me? Then what about Dawn? What about Barry? My mom? Ash? Misty? Brock? Elaine? Are they not real to you then?"

"I learned a long time ago that there is no line between fiction and reality, that everything can be part of reality, and that culminated in me coming into this real world."

"I… I'm sorry, I don't know how I should be feeling right now."

"Me neither, but that's okay. Do you need a drink or anything?"

"No… I'm okay, I just have so many questions, and I don't even know if you're telling the truth or not."

"Then ask away until you're satisfied, we have plenty of time."

"Um… if… if I'm a video game character… then that must mean you know our future's right? Is that the reason you knew Ash was in Sinnoh?"

"Yeah, where I came from, the plot had moved on from this point in time, Ash got all eight gym badges and reached the Semi-Finals of the Lily of the Valley Conference. Don't tell him that though, that will only stir up trouble."

"Yeah, that makes sense. What about me and Dawn then?"

"Dawn is representative of her portrayal in the show. She, wait, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but she does make it to the Grand Festival. And you… hmmm, whatever the player does, but if you follow the plot, you end up battling Cynthia."

"The Champion?! No way. Not me."

"No, seriously."

"I'd never be strong enough to do that."

"Remember what I told you this morning?"

"... Is… Is that why you said those things? Is that why you said you believed in me?"

"Well… it was a factor, yes."

"But what if I'm nothing like the game character? What if I'm just your average everyday kid?"

"You're not, and there's two, no, three reasons why I know that you have the potential to do great things. First, I saw your willpower when Dawn went missing, nothing could have stopped you then. Second, you are a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for, you notice a lot of little things, like all my inconsistencies and Team Rocket's disguises. And lastly, the only battle you've ever lost is the one you threw when you battled your sister."

"I… so… you really, truly think I'll be able to battle the Champion one day?"

"Yes."

"That's… wow…"

"You find that more unbelievable than the fact that I'm technically an alien?"

"I… think it's more that, it's less, magical I guess? Speaking of which, how did all of this even happen?"

"Well, that's the longest part of the story."

"I don't care, I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight anyway."

"That's not good for your health, but I know what you mean."

"So what happened."

"Well, I was minding my own business, I was in class at the time. I was transported to a pocket dimension by what I can only describe as a deity randomly and he offered me what he called a business proposal, and before you ask, I have no idea how he was able to do all of that."

"What was this offer?"

"Well, he was bored with the lack of adventures happening, or so he said. He offered to give me ten years to spend in this world just for the sake of adventure."

"And you accepted and just left everyone back at home?"

"Well no, he showed me that while I was gone, time would be stopped in my dimension until I came back, no one would have known I was gone."

"That sounds too good to be true, especially if you dreamed about that sort of thing your whole life."

"Oh it is, and I am grateful he chose me to do all of this. But it gets even better. You see, before I came here, the guy-"

"What was his name by the way?"

"I don't know, he never said. I always think of him as The Elf because he looked a lot like one."

"How so?"

"Well, he wore a white three-piece-suit, had long blonde hair and looked like every Tolkien inspired elf out there, minus the ears. Anyway, as I was saying, it gets better. The elven guy offered me a sheet to fill out. In it, I had a thousand points to spend on perks and items I'd get for coming to this world."

"What sort of perks?"

"How about I tell you what I got for the sake of expediency?"

"Okay?"

"First off, for free I was given a complete Pokédex, a Pokégear, five Pokéballs, three Potions, my bag, and my red hat."

"Your Pokédex is complete? Like with every Pokémon? Including Legendary Pokémon?"

"Every single one. At least as far as I know."

"If you got all of that for free, what did you buy?"

"The first thing I could have bought was a choice of which region I went to, but I instead decided to roll the dice for free, and I ended up here. I also rolled my age."

"Wait, roll your age? What do you mean."

"I could have transformed into a ten-year-old kid if I ended up rolling low. I could have bought to choose but I got lucky and got something close to my actual age. This body is seventeen years old, turning 18 on the third of July, but I'm actually already eighteen and eleven months old."

"That doesn't seem like much of a difference."

"It isn't, I also could have paid a hundred points to turn into a girl if I wanted."

"That's... weird."

"I actually thought about doing it for a while just to see what it's like, but then I thought that I could spend the points better elsewhere."

"You want to experience what it's like to be a girl?"

"You've never been curious?"

"No, I have my sister for that."

"That could be taken in a really wrong direction."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing I can explain without your mum's permission."

"Are you thinking of something dirty?"

"When you've been on the Internet as long as I have, anything can be dirty."

"Gross."

"It is. Anyway, next I could have paid to… essentially take the role of a person who already existed but was still me, if that makes sense?"

"No, it doesn't."

"Well, I didn't pay for it and went for the Drop-In option, which was free. Although it was literally a Drop-In since I was dropped right into the middle of Lake Verity from about twenty metres up."

"How long's a meter?"

"About three feet and a bit."

"So that's what, sixty feet up?"

"Yep, which was why I was wet when you met me."

"Oh yeah, that did seem a bit weird."

"Thank you for offering to take me to your place by the way."

"Oh… um… you're welcome."

"Next, I could decide what my first Pokémon was going to be."

"Oh, what were your choices?"

"I could have chosen any Pokémon."

"Wait, any Pokémon?!"

"Well, others were more expensive than others, but yeah, any Pokémon."

"How much did Elaine cost?"

"Interesting story actually. The cost of a Pokémon was decided by how rare they were in the region that you went to. There are three versions of the game that takes place in the Sinnoh region. In the third one, Platinum, oh, that's another thing I should tell you to remind me about that, Ralts has a twenty percent encounter rate in Route 209 which was the criteria for the species to be the second cheapest at fifty points. Had I not found that by checking online, I would have had to pay more."

"How come you chose Ralts?"

"Well, Ralts is able to evolve into my second favourite Pokémon species, and it's also really powerful. Elaine is also adorable, so there's that."

"What's your first then?"

"Rattata."

"How come?"

"Because I once played through one of the Pokémon games with only Rattata as a reference to a long-running joke in the Pokémon fandom. I never evolved him, during the run, and we got pretty far. It's because of the playthrough we had and not the Pokémon itself if that makes sense."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"Then there was the skills and abilities. These were the most expensive part of the sheet. With them, I could improve myself in certain ways. I bought four of these. Physical Fitness for a hundred points, Survival Training for another hundred, Savant for three hundred, and Champ In The Making for a hundred and fifty."

"What did all of those so?"

"Physical Fitness made me as the title said, physically fit. Before I bought that, I was overweight, and not very healthy. It also said I would be almost as strong as Captain America."

"From those superhero comics?"

"Yeah, though there's going to be a movie about him in a couple years, don't tell anyone, spoilers."

"How strong is he?"

"He can stop a helicopter from flying up by pulling it."

"Holy, moly!"

"Yeah, I haven't tested how strong I am yet, so I don't know the full extent of my strength. I need to do that sometime."

"Survival Training is self-explanatory right?"

"Yep, exactly what it says on the tin."

"What about Savant? What does that word mean?"

"A Savant is someone, typically someone with Autism, who has profound mental capabilities in a certain area. The perk gave me perfect memory, calculator-like mental math, better spatial awareness, and really good aim."

"So is that the reason you're so smart?"

"No, it just made me more efficient. Go on, ask me the hardest math question you can think of."

"Okay… a hundred and twenty-seven, times four thousand and five, minus fifty-eight, divided by thirty-six."

"Is this in order of operations or chronologically?"

"Um… Oh, the order of operations is BODMAS right? That one."

"Five hundred and eight thousand, six hundred and thirty-three point three and then eight forever repeating."

"Wow… Um, what was the last one?"

"Last one, Champ In The Making gave me a talent in working with a team, both in terms of Pokémon and people. I'm good at training Pokémon and working out disagreements. I took it in case I wanted to actually try to become a Pokémon Master."

"You definitely can."

"Thanks, Lucas, but I've got some tough competition."

"I'm not that… sorry I did it again."

"That's okay."

"Um… what did you spend the rest of your points on?"

"Some items, fifty thousand Pokédollars that I spent on clothes and camping equipment, a collapsible bicycle, and the medical kit I used to fix up your blister. They were fifty points each."

"Huh, okay… is that everything?"

"I think so, do you have any more questions?"

"I… I still don't know if I believe you fully, it's just so… fantastical."

"What sort of proof should I show you then?"

"Um… could you contact that Elf guy or something?"

"I don't know how to."

"Um… you said that you're further ahead in the... plot… does that mean you know what's going to happen soon? Tell me what happens tomorrow."

"Oh… uh… Oh, I know. Let's talk with Ash for a moment. I need to know if what I'm thinking has already happened or not. But I'm going to talk to him without letting on anything, so as not to indirectly cause anything different to happen."

"Um… okay?"

So I got up and walked over to Lucas and Ash's shared room and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" The door opened. "Oh, hey Jack! How can I help ya?"

"Lucas just wanted to check something in his bag," I lied.

"Hm?" He looked up at me skeptically, but then caught on to what I was trying to do. "Oh, yeah I just wanted to check if uh… I might have dropped something when we went out and fought Team Rocket," he explained as he entered.

"So what have you guys been talking about?" Ash asked as Pikachu ran up to his shoulder.

"Oh a bunch of stuff," I explained, "my home, how I got to Sinnoh, theoretical time travel."

"Time travel? Really?"

"Well, it's something I'm really interested in, a lot of my favourite shows and games have time travel in it. Like Doctor Who or Steins;Gate." I felt safe talking about a series that wasn't out yet as it is a bit of a niche game slash anime.

"Haven't heard of either of them," Ash replied, as Lucas fumbled with his backpack, "guess that's cause I don't watch too much TV or anything like that."

"How was training this afternoon, did anything interesting happen while we were gone?"

"Yeah, Dawn's spinning technique was really something, huh. She perfected that just earlier today."

"What about in your training?"

"Ours? Oh, nah, it was just the normal stuff."

"Oh, ok. You found what you need Lucas?"

"Y-yeah, it's still here."

"You want to continue our conversation about parallel worlds back in the lobby then?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Right then, night Ash."

"G'night!" he replied.

"Pika!" his partner chirped.

Elaine chirped a "Vuha" back.

Lucas, Elaine and I took our seats at the table.

"What was that all about?" Lucas asked, "Are you trying to get him to figure out what I did as well?"

"Not at all. Unlike you, Ash isn't very traditionally smart, I mean he's a battling genius he knows how to train his Pokémon, but beyond that, there's not much. I was fishing for information to see if something had happened or not."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know for a fact, that Aipom will want to perform in the Jubilife contest, and she's going to convince Ash to do it. That happens during a training session, so I'm sure that if the Contest is on in two days, either tomorrow or the day after, Aipom will make her move."

"Ash? In a contest?"

"Oh, you'll be surprised, he'll do pretty well. He actually tied for first in a contest not long ago. That's something else I shouldn't know by the way."

"And if that happens, I'll know that you're telling the truth this time?"

"Yeah."

"You said that you're going to be here for ten years, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you going to miss your friends and family."

"...Yeah, but I still came here because I knew I'd hate myself for not taking the opportunity."

"Hm… I don't think I'm going to sleep tonight."

"Hey, how about a battle?"

"Hm?"

"Maybe that will help tire you out? One v one, no items. That okay with you Elaine?"

"Vuha!" she nodded.

"How about it Lucas?"

"Yeah… that sounds like a good idea."


	17. Entry 17 - Elaine vs Turtwig

10:00 PM

As I organised with Nurse Joy the use of one of the Pokémon Centre's battlefields and to still be up for post-battle patch-up, Lucas told the rest of our party about the battle. Ash and Dawn were excited for the battle, Ash because it was a battle, and battles are cool, Dawn because she would finally get to see her brother fight someone who she saw as a challenge for her twin. Brock offered to referee, and Misty seemed to come out of obligation.

Brock formally announced the rules. "The battle between Lucas Diamond from Twinleaf Town and Jack Harvey from the Dochaku region will now commence. The battle will be a one on one and no items or substitutions are permitted. Both trainers send out your first Pokémon."

"You can do it, Lucas!" Dawn shouted from the sidelines.

Ash, in turn, yelled, "Good luck to the both of ya!"

"Pi ka chu!"

Elaine jumped off of my shoulder and landed softly on the ground, before running forward a couple of metres. She faced her side towards Lucas and held out an arm in preparation for a Confusion attack.

Lucas tossed his Poké Ball overhanded and shouted, "Go, Turtwig!" Lucas's starter Pokémon summoned itself from the sphere and landed in a wide stance, ready to charge at any moment.

"Alright," Brock exclaimed, "Battle, begin!"

 _Okay, Lucas's Turtwig knows three moves, Tackle, Withdraw and Absorb. Lucas also knows that Elaine knows Confusion, Growl, and Double Team. With that, and how much I've been talking about it, he knows that Withdraw is useless, meaning he'll only use Tackle or Absorb. Tackle is the stronger move at forty power as opposed to Absorbs twenty, thirty if you include same type attack bonus. Due to Elaine's frailty, if I spam confusion like I normally do, Turtwig can either Absorb to heal the damage or Tackle to deal damage faster, so going for straight damage is not the best option. That leaves either Growl or Double Team. Growl only weakens physical attacks, so if I do that he will just switch to using Absorb which won't do anything. Thus, there's only one option._

"Elaine," I shouted, "use Double Team!" _I have to rely on the luck of the draw and hope that Turtwig misses his attacks._

Lucas shouted "Turtwig, Tackle!"

Elaine dropped her raised arm and then raised both of them to the side. As her corporeal form blurred, Turtwig charged head first towards Elaine. Elaine's second form had fully materialised when Turtwig rammed his head towards the form on my left, making an impact with Elaine. Her two formed recoiled simultaneously, they fell back onto the floor and then quickly pushed themselves right back up.

 _Okay, Turtwig is still able to hit relatively easily, but if I stack Double Teams instead of attacking, I may end up getting hit again and then be put into a massive disadvantage, I have to hope that what Elaine already have will allow her to dodge a few attacks._

"Tackle again!" Lucas yelled.

"Confusion!"

Both of Elaine's transparent forms raised their right hands towards the approaching Turtwig. Her arm began to vibrate, far more intensely then it had before, it was as if her arm had also used Double Team from the speed it was shaking. Then in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, a thin hot pink laser shot out from in between Elaine's two forms and right into Turtwig's forehead, the beam was gone as soon as it arrived. _That wasn't a new move, was it? No, that was still Confusion. Was that a Critical Hit then?_ Turtwig tripped over his own feet when the Confusion hit him, yet the trip didn't send him to the ground, instead, he continued to charge at Elaine, making contact again, this time in between her two forms and right into her head, temporarily visualising her singular solid form. As Turtwig passed her, Elaine was able to steady herself before she fell.

 _Should I Growl? No, it's too late now, and Lucas is likely to tell Turtwig to Absorb to take back some health from Elaine after that Critical Hit. Keep up with the Confusion. Elaine's faster than Turtwig, so it should hopefully even out._

"Confusion, again!"

"Turtwig, you can do it! Use Tackle!"

 _Dammit, I guessed wrong._

Turtwig drifted into a one-eighty degree turn, and then rushed towards Elaine, aiming again in between the two forms. However, before Elaine was able to discharge another Confusion, Turtwig made contact. Or at least, it looked like it, as the Pokémon ran into nothingness like it was running through a haze smoke. Elaine's two forms spun around and launched a Confusion towards Turtwig's back.

 _It's good that he missed, but why did Turtwig's move happen before Elaine's? Wait, are we speed-tied? If that's the case, then it's entirely random who goes first. I still don't know what Lucas is going to do between Tackle and Absorb, so my best option is to just hit them as much as possible. Especially since I don't know how much more Elaine can take._

"Attack with Absorb!"

"Elaine, Confusion!"

Turtwig's tiny plant growing from the top of his head began to glow a spring-green colour, and then the light of that twig erupted into various curved lines of light which shot towards Elaine's dual figures. They were both engulfed in the lights, which briefly corporealised her into a solitary form. Then round globules of light retreated from her body and floated into Turtwig's form. This new attack seemed to not cause Elaine to flinch as much as she did when she was hit with a Tackle. Elaine's hand raised her shaking arm to the one who stole her energy and released another Psychic wave into its mind. The resulting attack led angry tears to form in Turtwig's eyes as the pain in its head began to become unbearable.

 _They're both looking weak, either one gets hit and they're done for. Lucas should know that while Elaine might survive another Absorb, so they have to Tackle because they didn't heal enough to counteract all the damage they've taken. So ultimately, it's who can land the final attack first. Since we're speed-tied, it's a fifty-fifty chance who goes first, however, I have a Double-Team up, so the odds are slightly in my favour._

I yelled, "Confusion, quick!"

Lucas replied as intensely, "Tackle!"

Turtwig ran towards Elaine and Elaine charged a psionic attack. Our opponent was approaching quickly, the dust underneath his feet displaced from his violent stride. Elaine's dual forms vibrated their arms, yet beneath their incorporeality appeared the brief moments of a solid form, like an old TV focusing on its image.

I had seen Elaine charge her Confusion attack multiple times, so I had a good sense as to how long the attack takes. With the distance that Lucas's Pokémon had covered in that time, I knew that Elaine's attack wouldn't charge in time, Turtwig had won the speed tie. Tackle would hit first.

 _Damnit, c'mon Double Team, work!_ "Elaine, dodge!" I yelled, but it was a fruitless effort, the collision would occur before Elaine would be able to react properly.

Turtwig was upon Elaine. He had made it to the space between the two forms. And with a dull thud, he had collided with solid matter.

Elaine fell under to the ground with a dazed look in her eyes, she wasn't getting up.

"Ralts is unable to battle, Turtwig wins!" Brock announced. "Meaning the winner of the battle is Lucas Diamond, from Twinleaf Town."

Lucas looked at Brock in disbelief, "W…What?"

I walked up to the resting Elaine and gingerly picked her up. She was breathing steadily. She looked up at me, with a sorrowful smile.

"Jack…"

"Hey, it's alright. You did really well. Nurse Joy will heal you up and then everything'll be alright."

She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.

 _First loss… At least it was close. Too bad I had to rely on luck though._

"See what I mean Lucas, you beat me."

"We… we really won?! Turtwig, we actually won!"

"While you guys celebrate I'm going to take Elaine to the nurse."

10:30 PM

Thankfully, this version of the Pokémon universe had the healing capabilities of the games and not the anime, Lucas and I only had to wait a couple of seconds for our Pokémon to be good as new.

In the shared room I had with Brock, Elaine was all pouty about our loss.

"Hey, we did our best. It's okay to lose."

"Vu!" By pouty, it meant the full puffed cheeks and crossed arms.

"Seriously, it's not as bad as you're making it out to be. We always have the option of a rematch since we're travelling with him."

Elaine didn't respond.

"I… Brock?" I called out to the person getting changed into his pyjamas behind the bathroom door.

"Yes, Jack?"

"Once you're done, can I get your opinion on something?"

"That's fine with me," he replied.

I may have a vast knowledge about the mechanics of Pokémon in terms of the games, but I was new to the whole social aspect. From what I could gather, Pokémon had the same capabilities of understanding as human children did. They could understand language and language structure but had difficulty with theoretical concepts. So I didn't know the best way to go about communicating with Pokémon on a more emotional level, how they think in terms of what they want and how they feel. The Ralts species may have an easy time understanding the emotions of others, but that didn't mean I had an easy time reciprocating.

The door opened and Brock stepped out of the bathroom. He kindly asked, "What is it, Jack?"

"I'll be honest, I don't have much experience with dealing with a Pokémon's emotions. Elaine's still pouty from losing our battle earlier, and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I should do. I was wondering what you think."

As Brock was travelling with Ash and crew to become a Pokémon Breeder, he had developed a talent in emotionally understanding Pokémon. Which was why I sought his guidance.

"Ah, I see." Brock brought his hand up to his chin and stared at the little Pokémon sitting at the foot of my bed. "You've told her that losing is normal, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you're not mad at her for not winning?"

"I'm legitimately not, and I know that she would pick up on it either way with horns."

"Hm… I think the best thing to do would just be to let her be for a while."

"You think so?"

"Sometimes it's okay to leave your Pokémon alone. If Elaine wants your attention, she'll come to you."

"That makes sense." I turned towards Elaine. "You hear all that Elaine? I'll leave you alone for a bit if that's okay with you." I stood up from the bed. "I'm gonna go to the lobby then. Come get me in about half an hour."

"What are you going to do?" Brock asked.

"I don't know, maybe check some things online?"

"I don't think being on computers when it's this late is very healthy."

"Really? If so, I must be one of the most unhealthy people on the face of the earth." Then I left.

I was really confused. Not about Elaine, but battles. When Lucas and I battled, it worked in the same way that the games did, exactly. But then that seemed to contradict the battle that Ash and Paul had. Both sides dodged attacks that would have normally hit with a hundred percent certainty in the games, yet our battle was completely by the books. _Why is that? How can Ash's Pokémon dodge attacks that should hit? Is there something I'm missing? Do battles just follow the system I'm familiar with only when I battle? Is it possible for me to achieve but I haven't learned how to yet? How are they randomly dodging?_ And then it hit me. I remembered a feature introduced in the newer games. _Is Pokémon-Amie a thing? That might explain it, but then how does it work?_

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed a boy sleeping on one of the couches in the lobby, his Turtwig was similarly asleep in his lap.

 _I'd hoped your battle would make you tired, but this is ridiculous._

I walked up to him. "Hey, Lucas?" I said softly, "time for you to go to bed."

"Huh?" He started awake. "Oh, did I fall asleep."

"Not just you." I motioned to his sleeping partner.

"Oh, huh." He pulled out a Poké Ball and held it up to the Pokémon on his lap. "Turtwig, return." Then the weight was lifted from his legs as Turtwig disappeared.

"So, aside from tired, how are you?"

"That wasn't all a dream, right?"

"Which part?"

"All of it, those Pokétchs made by Team Rocket, our conversation, that battle?"

"All of that happened."

"Wow…"

"Yeah, congratulations, by the way, you gave me my first loss."

"Thank you, but I think I was just lucky."

"Well… yeah, I'll admit that you winning that last speed tie was what sealed the win."

"Speed tie?"

"When two Pokémon have the same speed stat, it's a fifty-fifty chance to see which one attacks first, at least that's the theory."

"Is this theory like Same Type Attack Bonus?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know there was a speed tie?"

"Well, sometimes Elaine would hit first but other times Turtwig would hit first… actually… I'm starting to think that some of these theories may not fully apply to real-world battles like it does in the games I played. I think there's an added layer of realism that what I know doesn't account for."

"What makes you say that?"

"When Ash battles, things happen that should be impossible in the games. His Pokémon dodge attacks left and right, while Elaine can only barely dodge some attacks when using Double Team."

"That's normal though. Stronger trainers and Pokémon are better at dodging attacks than ones who have less experience."

"Is that so?"

"Did that not happen in the uh… games?"

"No, even in battles with the strongest Pokémon, it still adhered to the rules of evasion. Unless there was a change to the evasion or accuracy stat during the battle, a move like Tackle would always hit. Barring stuff like the Ghost-Type or Protect, of course."

"Yeah…" Lucas yawned, "that's not how it actually works."

"You alright?"

"Just tired."

"Then you should probably go to bed. Your mum might have a fit if she knew you were up this late."

"What time is it?"

"A bit past ten-thirty I'd say."

"Yeah, Mom would be upset if I was up this late." Lucas slowly stood up from the couch. "Goodnight, Jack."

"G'night."

After Lucas left, I decided to do a bit of research, mostly dodging attacks. Unfortunately, I was unable to find anything more than practice methods that didn't appear very original or novel. The most scientific thing I found was a paper on a correlation between the bond between Pokémon and Trainer and a Pokémon's ability to dodge, but even that listed a bunch of uncontrollable variables that could have affected it, like a Pokémon's weight, size, age, species, battle experience and so forth. Essentially there wasn't enough certainty to make the researcher's hypothesis into a theory. There was no similar paper about the correlation between a Pokémon's dodging ability and it's battling experience that I could find. That meant that it was either common knowledge or that it wasn't a factor at all. _No, it has to be common knowledge, since some wild Pokémon can dodge like that. At least, that's what happened in the anime._

"Jack?" A tiny voice cried, suddenly, from beside my leg.

"Oh, Elaine. You okay?

"Vuee…" she sighed while she pulled the cuff of my pants leg.

"I guess you want me to go to sleep with you?"

"Vmhm…" she nodded.

"Okay." I picked her up and headed down the corridor to the rooms. "Hey, Elaine?"

"Vm…?"

"…Thank you."

"Jack…"


End file.
